Abstractions

Why one and the other must always be.

Everywhere she looked, another abstraction. Nothing was consistent. Nothing was the same. Nothing could be calculated. Everything was too out-of-place to have any semblance of organization. It was too much to bear.

To her, everything could be calculated, but only if she calculated in error. Everything had error, of course. Nothing could be perfect. But nothing was so complicated that she couldn’t figure it out. Everything had a place to be, a value to fit, a description to match. No big deal.

This divide was what drove them apart, but also what tied them together. One couldn’t live without the other, but they couldn’t bear to be near the other. It was a perfect disaster. Constant conflict, but absolute harmony. Every conversation was a battle, and yet each fight ended with balance. Tit for tat, but never an eye for an eye.

They tried to separate once.

She couldn’t bear it. She never knew where the other was. The unpredictability was testing her limits.

She couldn’t bear it. It was too easy to figure out. Always knowing where the other was, it was like she had never left.

They tried never leaving each other’s sight, too. But we won’t discuss that, for it isn’t important.

What is important, and comforting, and familiar, is this: the fact that perfect harmony can exist. One always will be, so long as the other is too. Without one, the other won’t. That’s just the way it must be.