The tattered remains of a balloon, its silver string dangling over a flowerpot in my backyard, caught my attention one early morning before Halloween.
(Surreally speaking, Sir Isaac Newton, attired in the Dickensian tatters during his ghostly visit by means of balloon ex machina, drove home the laws of “What goes up must come down,” illustrating the laws of motion governing the heavenly bodies. And also the earthly ones.)
And my heart leaped for the image of Banksy’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ inscribed with the phrase – THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE.
I hope that the child, assuming that it was a child, who lost her or his grip on the silver string of the balloon, knows that there is always hope. And I hope that the child’s guardian is there to remind the child that there is always hope. For “The Child [without hope] is Father of the [lost] Man.”
“However, beyond its scientific significance, this quote can also serve as a catalyst for philosophical contemplation.” (The Socratic Method)
William Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” is a vivid illustration of the “What goes up must come down” pertaining to human being from its “Mewling and puking” infancy to its last stage of “second childishness and mere oblivion”, completing the cyclical nature of our being.
“What goes up must come down” underscores the Hindu concept of incarnation. What dies must be born again. And again.
Given the philosophical twist of the Möbius strip of being, death is present in life, and life in death. It is similar to the Taoist concept of the union of Yin and Yang, two seemingly opposite forces.
Hence the chariot of life runs on the wheels of Dharma and Karma. Rebirth or Moksha depends on the Dharma and Karma working in tandem. Dharma propels the one with a clean Karmic slate out of the Möbius loop of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara) on to the realm of deathlessness. It is called Nirvana in the Buddhist tradition
Here is an example of art copying the rhythm of life, in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake’s concluding word is “the”, which sends the reader back to the beginning of the book, “riverrun”, connecting the loop, albeit a linear one. So to speak, Finnegan is born again.
Also, “What goes up must come down” is the beginning line of the 1st stanza of “Spinning Wheel”, the 1969 hit song by Blood, Sweat & Tears, a Jazz Rock Group. “Everything comes full circle” is the theme of “Spinning Wheel” song.
Finally, let us abide by the love and warmth of our humanity, for we are the undying embers. Let us abide our time, for the Phoenix will rise again.
