The Laws of Physics
(“Shadow Puppet”, 2023, original encaustic)
The wise ones, who’ve figured out the basic rules
Of physical reality, tell us that for every action
There is an equal and opposite reaction.
I don’t know about you, but this terrifies me.
I’ve spent my whole life trying
To figure out and be myself,
At least after those brief childhood years
When no trying is involved,
And this means looking for what’s real
And wanting to be kind and good
And figuring what love and truth and beauty really is.
Thinking about that basic law of motion now
It hits me like a tsunami;
If I’ve been doing the best I can in life
What have I actually been creating?
What “equal and opposite reaction”
Have I actually caused?
And is my effort to do good
Itself just the equal and opposite reaction
To some other force
A creative force that just makes me its pawn?
It’s a chicken and an egg kind of dilemma,
Except in the case of chicken and eggs
It’s obvious the egg comes first.
In the case of the forces of good and evil
I’m not so sure which it is
Or how we could possibly know
Or if it really even matters.
What matters is that the action/reaction thing
Is a dance, perhaps an endless dance,
Although in the moment it feels more a battle.
And it is a battle, for our mind, for our soul
But it’s also a dance
Since it seems the two forces
Are inextricably bound.
And when couples dance,
Even those temporarily at odds,
At some point the dance itself,
And more fundamentally, the music, holds sway.
And in that moment they are no longer two,
Not two that have reunited as one from being two,
But two that are, and always have been, simply
Not two.
(11/3/25)
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