Life on the Small End

I reside at the small end of a large funnel. Contents are poured in, swash around and are ultimately directed with velocity and regularity in my direction.  There are many sources at the wide end.  Some trickle in at random, where others are decanted daily, but they all end up in the same place and fill me up as instantaneously as they merge and tangle at the funnels end. 

There are those who pour in from the page and others in person but, still the same, they continue to generously tip themselves over and allot themselves toward my sustenance and edification.

Sure I have my filters whose gauges are as variable as my disposition but in my greatest hope the funnel runs freely and accepts the purity of the contents that pour in.  Pure and rare or pure and routine, they can intercalate or evaporate, value and provision are in how I let them be. I reside at the small end of a funnel; life pours in and fills me up.

The Best Analogy Ever (Part 2)

The best analogy ever has to be “activation energy.”  Of course, as described earlier, activation energy is a real thing too but as an analogy it is as ubiquitous as a concentration gradient in a cell.  The expression can take many forms but in the end it all comes down to indicating the little extra push that results in a chain reaction and a big impact. Activation energy can be dished out as a swift kick in the pants or accumulated as a boulder is pushed toward the precipice of a hill.  It can be the spark that lights a fire in you or the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

The Best Analogy Ever (part 1)

In order for chemical reactions to occur they usually need a little help. This help comes in the form of activation energy.  Burning is a familiar chemical reaction.  If you look around just about everything you see could burn, but it doesn’t.  The stuff doesn’t spontaneously combust because the molecules that make them are bound together in relatively stable forms.  The rug is made of rug molecules that are chosen for their stability (though the rug store would likely sell more rugs if they simply dissolved into the universe but on the other hand they probably wouldn’t sell any rugs once the word got out about their instability).  Either way, under normal circumstances the rug will passively lie on the floor for a long, long time. Unless…activation energy. 

In the case of the rug the activation energy could come in the form of a tipped candle or a smoldering cinder from a fireplace but, with just enough heat, the rug will burn.  Once the burn reaction has started it will provide the heat for the adjacent rug area and the reaction will spread.  Eventually the fire might spread to the couch, the cabinet, the walls and eventually the whole house will be up in flames.

This may seem obvious but the important point is that the raging inferno was started by a tiny flame, just enough energy, to get it going.  Activation energy is the little push that gets reactions moving but it is also the best analogy ever.