Integration of Opposing Forces

 Elegant thinking involves an intense focus on the most significant, most impactful, most insightful elements within complexity. Metaphorically, separating the chaff from the grain, cutting through the static, putting first things first. What nuance may be lost is more than made up for by the power of focus. 

On the other hand, contextual thinking involves a deep unearthing of the interconnected whole. Metaphorically, seeing the forest for the trees, seeing the effect of a butterfly's wings. What straight-forwardness may be lost is more than made up for by the power of the analysis. 

Both ways of thinking can fall prey to an either/or approach, which is dangerous. Either you focus on the most important things, or you are lost in the details. Either you understand the depth of connection, or you oversimplify the situation. 

A different approach is to see these ways of thinking as opposing forces that can be simultaneously integrated. Metaphorically, I think of a mountain pose in yoga. For the non-yogis out there, mountain pose could also be called "just standing there with arms at your side." In mountain pose, the yogi maintains an upward uplifting energy while simultaneously maintaining a downward grounding energy, embodied through simultaneously contracting and releasing certain muscles. At its best, it is not an either/or pose, but an integration of opposing forces, an exercise in both/and. Or, think of the integration of opposing gravitational forces between the earth and sun. There is simultaneously an inward and an outward force, keeping the earth in the sun's orbit and keeping me from flying into the sun when I walk outside. 

 The elegant contextual point being: integrate opposing forces, hold practice and theory in tension, hold vision and emergence in tension, hold structure and spontaneity in tension, hold decisive thinking and contemplative thinking in tension, move forward in mindful action.