Ttc 2

[Francine]

The beautiful that demands admiration is not beautiful. The good that demands recognition is not good. The woman of wisdom acts without effort from a center that gives rise to all things before they are precipitated out from one another and require names. Therefore she makes without owning and accomplishes without expectations of merit.

Our perception of the world is derived from contrasts. We see objects only because there is a background against which to see them. We hear only because of our perception of the difference between sound and silence. This dualism even extends to language. Once someone is named wise, it follows that someone else must be named mediocre. The whole world knows the large as "large" only because of the existence of the "small". But seeing the hand of a newborn child resting upon my own, I seem so large, and feel (wordlessly) so small.