Unlimited Potential

There is an old riddle/paradox out there that has confounded even our greatest minds for the longest time: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object? Sure, this conundrum last popped its head up in The Dark Knight, but it goes back way farther than that. I find it a fascinating question, largely because in order to contemplate it, you have to shut off the logical portion of your mind. Logically, only one of these forces could actually exist, and based in a physical universe that is finite, neither of them could. So all you people who cling to the teat of logic like a baby squirrel monkey does to its mother have to check your hats at the door.

I love it because it is such a great metaphor for conflict. On the one hand, you have the unstoppable force, a being of limitless drive and energy that can never stop. I cannot help but respect and admire the sheer ambition and motivation of it, always moving forward without giving a damn about anything that might stand in its way. I know poeple like this, and although that drive sometimes leads to them acting a little self-involved and oblivious to the feelings and needs of those around them, they know how to go out there and grab life by the balls and take what they want from it.

Then you have the unmovable object. Stalwart, determined, unbending to anything, it's the epitomy of strength. I know people like this as well. They are the ones who commit to a conviction and refuse to yield. Unmovable often comes across as stubborn, prompting those around it to ask, "Why don't you just move? Is it that hard to change?" When your very nature is to be unmovable, the aswers to those questions are, "Because I can't," and, "Yes it is." Just as the force will not stop for anything, the object will not budge. Why does it not move? Is it out of fear for losing something? Is it to prove a point that was long ago forgotten? Or does it simply do it because that is what unmovable objects do?

So, the stage is set and our characters are in place. What happens when they collide? Do they destroy one another? Do they merge and become a single entity? Do they create a new unlimited paradigm? One thing I do believe is that one cannot triumph over the other. They are both too perfect and too pure to be destroyed by the other. There is no winner and there is no loser. This of course means that either both win or both lose. Ever the optimist, I'd like to think that both end up winning, but this can't happen if the two remain in their present states. A fundamental change must take place in both, not by one, but by both parties involved. The object cannot suddenly decide to move, nor can the force choose to retard itself. There must be balance; a give and take in the universe.

So why ponder such things at all? Peace and clarity. Two things that I wish more people had.