Physics and philosophy…
The subject of washboard roads came up.
I was wondering if it had anything to do with the
observation that in a jar or bag of objects of different sizes that is shaken,
the large objects rise to the top.
That led me to bring up Stephen Covey the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People.”
Covey puts forth a metaphor about living life. Where you put the big rocks in first, and
then add the gravel in between the big rocks, then you can pour in the tiny
grains of sand.
The big rocks are the important things in life. You decide what is important.
But if you don’t schedule in the big things, your life with
filled be all the less important things, gravel and sand.
It turns out that washboard roads are not related to
granular convection, where large objects rise to the top when shaken.
Washboard roads relates to the same movement going over the
roads over and over at a certain speed.
That led me to another, perhaps imperfect, philosophical metaphor.
If washboard roads are due to the same movement over and
over, that is like the grooves we get into, which may not be so healthy for
us.
Resulting in our lives feeling like driving over shaky washboard
roads.
Then what we need to do is find some space in our jar of
life and shake things up, so the large objects, the important things, rise to
the top.
Hmmm… maybe…
Will have to meditate on this…
Let me know if this metaphor resonates with you…
Namaste
