I started the new year by participating in the annual Peace Hike here in Yachats which I look forward to every year since moving to the Oregon coast 6 years ago – it’s always a great reminder to share in the willingness to look at past atrocities of non-connected thinking and use the contrast of that insanity to the peace we really want to motivate us to deepen an all-inclusive sense of community – and not make avoidable mistakes by forgetting the lessons we have been given. I feel blessed to live in a community where that egalitarian spirit is highly valued all the while realizing that this is the longing of every heart and mind around the world, however frequently ignored or seemingly deeply buried.
In addition to the hike from the Commons Building to the Amanda Statue (near the new bridge*) the yearly ritual involves giving all participants a little sprig of cedar leaves to put on the common fire to symbolically represent our renewed commitment to peace and anchor our intention. The very fractal geometry of cedar sprigs gives us an opportunity to look at our ongoing motivations for everything we think and do – we can either metaphorically follow the smallest branches back through larger and larger gatherings of self-similar shapes to find the source or root where we realize we share the same pattern, the same intrinsic design, the same essential identity. If we traverse the fractal in the opposite direction – from unity to individuality, we may lose sight of the unifying generalization by a preoccupation with individual, specific divergent paths. This is one of the countless examples of how a geometric symbol can be used to join and strengthen … or as a tool for divisive thinking. It all depends on how we look at life each moment, either from the freeing kindness of inclusion … or the cruel fragmentation of exclusion. This is explored in greater depth in The Geometry Code: Universal Symbolic Mirrors of Natural Laws Within Us; Friendly Reminders of Inclusion to Forgive the Dreamer of Separation.
Here are a few more fractal images from prior posts on this website and other media I’ve made:
* Last year’s theme for the local Polly Plumb Productions banner project was “Paths to Yachats” to coincide with the completion of the new suspension footbridge. If you look for my (Bruce Rawles) banner art on this page, you’ll see my notes about my submission:
“Inspired by the symbolism of new higher, more sustainable footbridge connecting Yachats to Cape Perpetua, I combined the multi-ridge skyline of the cape as seen from Yachats Ocean Road with the general shape of the bridge from a photo I took shortly after the bridge was opened. Realizing that there are more than just human “paths” to our lovely community, I thought of adding an eagle or seagull or two but ended up just complementing the human traffic with the vast aquatic migration by means of a sea star and a whale fluke. I’m reminded that I must keep the bridges in my mind open to graciously receive all, regardless of form.”
Since I now have two artist depictions of a suspension bridge as visual bookends for this post, it reminds me of a geometric shape that occurs with a rope, chain, or other flexible material suspended between two fixed points, the catenary, which sounds like a cross between a cat and a canary – or perhaps the shape of the belly of a cat that ate a canary? The actual shape of suspension bridges with additional non-uniform weight is probably different, but it’s a good place to start for a first approximation.