Dichotomies

The mind likes to make distinctions. This is this. That is that. Never shall they merge, blur their boundaries, or overlap. Also this becomes "good" and that becomes "bad." From there the attachments and aversions form, and we run from what we dislike and cling to what we do. It's what we do. And it's a bit crazy making sometimes. Take the talk about prison, for example. Inmates call everything not prison "the world." The world doesn't exist for them inside the razor wire. And inmates don't exist for us. They are off the map, out of sight, out of mind. They are no longer part of our social compact to care for each other as citizens, members of a social community. "Let 'em rot" runs beneath the thinking that severs them from a larger "us." That line of thought, of course, fails to serve us and them. Men and women get released and rejoin those of us out here in "the world." Nature too is seen as only in "wild" places. It's not part of the city or prison. But it is.  Life is everywhere, even in the bleak plains of the prison yard. It and they are part of us, whether we want to admit it or not. Some dichotomies, mostly the "us and them" don't cut it right. They, in this case, is still us.