Balance

Posted on Mon Mar 30th, 2015 @ 1:14am by Commander Andrew Matheson

[Timing note: About 15 minutes after Ultimatum: Part 2]

It's a generally accepted principle in astrophysics that the universe, and the multiverse in general, is tending towards a state of zero energy differential. Stretch out the time axis long enough, and the multiverse will either collapse back to the null state from which it emerged or the energy gradients will balance out and become uniform everywhere. In short, the multiverse will either have a zero energy value across all spaces it occupied or it will have a uniform energy value across all spaces it eventually occupies.

Myself, I don't know which one it's going to wind up doing; I'm a diplomat, not an astrophysicist. But there's a philosophical analogue to be drawn where everything seeks a balance. Certain philosophical and religious structures refer to the concept of karma, where the deeds one does dictates the nature of the deeds that are done to them.

It can be argued whether or not this is balance in the same context, because if someone does nothing but good, they would receive nothing but good in return and thus the good-bad balance would be weighted heavily towards good.

It can be argued that the personal benefits of the deeds you do are the value that is balanced by karma. Doing a good deed to someone at a personal cost to you will be balanced out by the benefit you receive by the incoming deed. I personally think this is a more accurate way to look at it.

In hindsight, this is probably why I'm not surprised by my wife's letter that she's filed paperwork for a divorce. There are many different ways to interpret everything that's happened over the last twenty years, but one valid interpretation is that I've put the needs of my career over her needs for my presence. Her putting her future needs against my future presence would seem to be a way to bring that situation back into balance.

Why the timing? Why here, why now? Again, balance can serve to explain this idiosyncracy. Today my career was advanced with the promotion. This provided a shift in the balance between my career and my wife's needs, so the universe compensated by notifying me of my wife's decision afterwards. Although I suppose I could argue that, since this decision has been flying across subspace for over a week, the promotion today was in reaction to the change of balance my wife introduced into the equation. Either way, the benefits attempt to balance.

Of course, I reserve the right to change this interpretation when my duty shift is over and the replicator will actually deign to serve me some kanar. Kanar is many things to many people, but it certainly works to refocus and redirect one's perceptions. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. And thus we come back to balance. Even the pattern of feeling better while drinking it and feeling worse the morning after drinking it ascribes to this higher principle of balance.