The Attraction of Paradoxes

What is there about paradoxes that draw people? Big Frank has been pondering this lately. He is drawn to them too; and knows that with some the more they seem to make no sense the more that he thinks that they make a lot of sense - a paradox! That's the draw isn't it. We distrust in many ways, especially for the big issues in life, the rational approach. Here's one that Big Frank likes: the end is the beginning, and beginning is the end. See Big Frank's previous post on the.

So what other popular paradoxes are so attractive? The Bible is full of paradoxes:

1. To save one's life, he or she must lose it. "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it" (Luke 17:33).
2. To be wise, we must become fools. "If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise" (I Corinthians 3:18).
3. To be exalted, we must become humble. "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted" (Matthew 23:12).

Philosophy has more than its share of paradoxes:

1. Lao Tsu in his philosophy of Tao holds that both the mind and the universe exist inparadoxical complements. Each one discovers its nature through the its relationship with the other. (Wallace Stevens finds a similar relationship between lovers in his poem "A Restatement of Romance".)
2. Kierkegaard is full of paradoxes:

• "Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are."
• "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
• "Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."

3. And then there's Neiztsche who held that the human race would occur over and over again, while waiting to evolve into the ubermench.

And what about the folksy truisms that we all invoke from time to time:

1. Without some unhappiness we would not really know happiness.
2. Misfortunes that we encounter in life are really fortunate opportunities.
3. There comes a time when the lie is the only truth and all truths are nothing but misinterpretations.