Gregory Bateson
once proposed that "it takes two to know one". His preference for doubleness
provided us with a desire to emphasize relationships over things. What
was two easily forgotten, however, was that double views, double hearings,
double acts, and double takes only lead to the relational realization of
"things". A distinction between two may be closed (or completed) to become
one.
To know two, extending this logic of relationship, necessarily
requires the presence of three. Whereas Bateson's double lens paradoxically
takes us to "things", a triple somersault is neessary to see relationship.
This next big jump moves us from tossing two balls to juggling at least
three.
Bradford Keeney, from the preface to Douglas
Flemons,
Completing Distinctions, Shambala 1991.
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