[MD] The MOQ's First Principle

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Marsha]
Are any of you balanced?   Do you KNOW balance?

[Arlo]
Regarding "balance", I know others on the list have referred to it as "harmony",
"the sweet spot" and the like. Platt and I have mentioned it in terms of
Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow". I prefer to think of it as the 2-dimensional
boundary between the Yin and the Yang. It is the point where neither are
overprivileged or underprivileged. It is elusive in that it is never stable.
What gives "balance" today may bring "chaos" or "stagnation" tomorrow.

"The beginning fatigue of afternoon balances the excitement of the first day and
we move steadily, not fast, not slow." (Pirsig, ZMM)

In ZMM, Pirsig describes the "beginner's mind" as being "right at the front end
of the train of knowledge, at the track of reality itself." At the front edge
of the train (DQ), but still on the train (SQ). There are no attempts to derail
the trail, to destroy the train, or to imply that the train is "bad" or
"irrelevant". The train carries you, and so has to be tended to keep it moving,
to keep it carrying you forward.

Art, as I think Mike implied (if I understood correctly), is not simply a DQ
experience. SQ plays its role not only in the acquisition of material means,
but in the forms your art take, forms that give your art meaning to others.
High Quality Art is never SQ-free, but uses static patterns in such a way as to
point to the distant unseen and say "Look!". Music is the same. Harmonies,
rhythms, chords, progressions, are all "static dictates".

For points of discussion we often talk of "balance" in the aggregate. Leading a
"balanced" life does not imply a type of "stasis". Sometimes you move forward,
sometimes you rest, sometimes you are excited, sometimes fatigued. But the
overall sum of your actions finds a point of "balance" where your forward
motion is Good and you have not destroyed static patterns you need to keep
moving forward.

"A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing"