Clarifying Definitions:

A resource is anything by which an entity/system (E/S) is re-sourced, or sourced again.

Reserves are amassed resources, available for the future needs of an E/S.

A stressor is anything that depletes the reserves and resourcefulness of an E/S.

A risk is anything that causes an E/S to incur the chance of unfortunate consequences.  A risk could have a positive outcome; however, the effects of it are unknown at the time of exposure, so risks are usually avoided.

Not all risks and resources are physical.  Read the Aside: Non-physical Risks and Resources.

Acquiring Resources

Immediate needs include resources for survival and structural maintenance.  Longer-range requirements include resources for enhancing capacities for growth and evolution and for avoiding accidental or excess losses.

Growth and maintenance strategies are triggered by both internal and external environments, the inside- and outside-spaces of any given E/S.

Inside and Outside Spaces was the topic and title of a previous aside in this chapter.

We acquire and retain resources by employing inward Pull.   Span is an automatic response to the reception/Pull of resources.

Examples:

• We inhale/Pull and our diaphragm extends/Spans.
• We eat/Pull and our belly expands/Spans.

We can think of Span as the extent of an outwardly directed exSPANsion.  Our boundaries are naturally exSPANded when resources are plentiful.  The happy children and the fully-bloomed sunflower below are good examples of flourishing entities with enlarged radial Spans.

When resourceful and emboldened, we freely express our full Span.  We can be be upstanding or outstanding.  We may even stick our necks out on behalf of others.

When feeling vulnerable to exploitation or endangerment we may attempt to do the opposite.

When threatened by uncertainty or by a perceived danger, an E/S may slump, recoil or shrink inwardly to reduce its surface exposure.   The threat does not have to be acute; a low-grade chronic stress extracts the same toll.

To resist destruction is a powerful instinct.  When threatened, we subject ourselves to a violent inversion of our natural extensiveness, becoming more inhibited.  It is not only built into us humans, but it is demonstrated by animals and plants and even single-celled organisms.

Inward and Outward Spin

Spin is a causal act initiated by a Subject with agency.  The intension (spelled with an ‘s’) of Spin indicates intention (spelled with a ‘t’) of agency.

When we feel safe we open ourselves at our boundaries, Spinning INwardly (down the gullet) to receive resources.  

Spinning with an open boundary draws from the outside, expanding the Subject’s inside-space, or Span.

We close ourselves at our boundaries, decreasing our Span, when we feel insecure and resources are scarce. 

Blocking entrance at our boundaries is an action taken to insure security through maintenance of structure.

We cannot hold our breath indefinitely, nor can we live forever off of stored reserves.  The phrases, “waiting to exhale” and “being uptight”, refer to this anxiety-driven ‘hybernation’, intended to conserve whatever resources are left until conditions hopefully improve.

When we release our willful withholding of hope, anxiousness or frustration, we may laugh, cry, or even scream with relief.  At the awards ceremony for Black Entertainment Television (BET), the winning co-stars from the movie Waiting to Exhale demonstrate shock, happiness and even tears, as each releases tension in her own way.

The attempt to minimize boundary exposure may be achieved briefly; however, the efforts to restrain our Span by closing our boundaries will rapidly diminishe reserves.  This strenuous effort must soon be offset by an acquisition of resources.  The boundary must Spin open/INwardly to receive an influx of resources.

It costs energy just to open and close one’s boundaries.  To reduce the frequency of these actions, an E/S would need to store resources internally, in reserve for future use.  Storing reserves internally increases Span.  As volume increases, so does surface exposure.  (Volume (4/3 pi x r³) is related to surface area (pi x r²) by the length of the radius ‘r’.)

Growth in girth may provide strength/fortitude; however, the entity’s expanded boundary has potential downsides as well:

• Increased size can reduce resiliency, speed.
• Additional volume requires more upkeep.
• Stature presents the E/S as a higher value target for predators (for food, trophy, or prisoner).
• Extra Span may require restructuring (a change of structure/form/pattern).  Whatever structure one has survived with, and/or whatever experiences one has survived in the past, are known factors and considered safer than risking any kind of change.  With novelty always comes risks.

For more on the risks of restructuring, read the Aside: Systemic Reorientation.

Girth may be maintained by releasing lower-level resources when acquiring higher-level resources; this is our metabolic process at work.

Our boundaries also Spin open/OUTwardly to allow for efflux of waste, to prevent runaway growth, and to to manage enthalpy.  OUTwardly Spinning reduces stored energy.

The top’s rotation continuously slows down as stored energy is gradually released.

Excess energy can be discharged through discrete events, whether by small, serial steps or by grand, isolated jumps.

Clockwise and Counter-Clockwise Spins Accord with Gradients

A closed boundary divides the inside-space from outside-space.  An open boundary bridges the inside-space with the outside-space.

According to the right hand rule  the direction of Spin, clockwise or counter-clockwise, indicates whether it is Pulling inward or Pushing outward.

Clockwise Spin (CWS) Pulls centripetally (opening the boundary inwardly):

• • • Spin acquires resources through CWS and by the Pull of low pressurization of the inside-space.

Counter-clockwise Spin (CCWS) Pushes centrifugally (opening the boundary outwardly).

• • • Spin expels waste through CCWS and by the Push of high pressurization of the inside-space.

Pressure gradients cause the opposing Spins to oscillate, just like the high and low pressure weather systems described in the previous chapter Spin and Span in Weather Systems.  High pressure areas are attracted to low pressure areas.  High potential energies move to reduce potential and release energy/light in the process.

Tao te Ching:

High and low rest upon each other.

IntenSion and IntenTion

Intension (spelled with an ‘s’), or inward Spin, is a counter-measure to extension, or outward Span.  Spin can be seen as the capacity an E/S has to bear intension in order to fulfill its intention to survive/stabilize.

As the skater below Pulls her arms inward to reduce the radius of her Span, she is stabilized and her angular momentum increases.  The deliberate constraint of Span, the drawing inward (pulling) of the skater’s otherwise extended arms, concentrates energy at her vertical center, or core.

Reduction of inside-space reduces surface exposure and compresses the volume (inside-space) of an E/S.

The centipede shown below curls its length to reduce surface exposure.  Vulnerable meerkats spiral into a huddle to minimize their collective surface exposure.

Span is the radial extension of the E/S.  When full extension (a straight-line radius) is retracted, the centrifugal Push against the boundary subsides, and the pressure of the outside-space overtakes it, pressing inward.  With the pressure of this inward Push, the radii are forced to curve, as seen in the sunflower below.  This curving of radii effects a reduced Span (both surface and volume) of the E/S.

The compression of Span is a quality inherent in natural phenomena.

According to the video that follows, everything has spin (referring to angular momentum and moving and growing in spirals).  In the video, physicist Elizabeth Rauscher suggests that spin is part of the space-time manifold.

I agree with Dr. Rauscher and would add that nothing can be said to exist spatially if it does not also endure for a measurable length of time.

A single spin/rotation forms a circuit.  A circular movement can open up into a wavelength that can advance by recurrence.  Circles and wavelengths are two ways of seeing the same thing, as shown in this short animation.

Waves are recursive; they repeat in time.  Every enduring entity has a signature energy pattern, from simple to complex (see Fourier wave).  This pattern of behavior has a frequency which corresponds to energy.

Spin and Span are Inseparable

The intension of Spin and the extension of Span are always found together, even if one is more obviously active than the other.

Spin and Span are inseparable, as are radii and circumference, and as are Pulls and Pushes.  Though one is more evident than the other, we should always consider where we might find the obscured element.

In the image below, we see a passive Span of water in which vortex actively Spins inwardly down toward a single point.  Remember: inward and down is a clockwise spin (CWS).

Explosions exSPANd outwardly, as do radii from a hub.  It is from an inward Spin (consumption of fuel) that passive particulates (fission products) are actively hurled.

As Quadernity teaches us: Subjects perform causal acts; Objects are at the effect of those actions.  Objects Spanning the physical plane, as Matter in Space (see explosion above), have been Pushed there by the Mother of Corporeality (Subject).  Objects Spanning the metaphysical plane, as Patterns in Mind, have been Pushed there by the Observer, Father of Consciousness (Subject).

Whether molecules of water are curled into a vortex, or whether bits of matter are blown apart, we are seeing the effects of the action, not the action itself.  The fact that the Objects at the effect of actions are visible in space, means they are Female Objects.  This means they are at the effect of Female actions.