The Wheel - Part 3

In the past few blogs, I asked myself the question, how ‘the wheel’ might have been invented. I have had fantasies about some different theories. About gods or people, without whom the wheel never would have been discovered. About the creativity of children who, long before adults began to interfere, invented the wheel just to play with it. Today I would like to discuss the theory that the wheel invented itself.

That immediately raises a few questions. How is that possible? Isn't it obvious that objects don’t have a soul, a will and an intellect? How then can they invent themselves? Most people just won’t believe it. It’s too complicated, too woolly and too farfetched. People who do believe it are either mentally disturbed or a philosophy student with too much imagination. I am neither of these, but I would like to give it a try. No guts, no glory. It won’t be the first time in history that the strangest idea is the closest to the truth.

At first, I ask myself the following fundamental question:

What is the essence of things?

In other words: What is the essence of everything that surrounds us? These questions are not easy to answer; one might easily drown into it. That’s why I have chosen a more practical version: What are the inner reasons of human beings, animals, trees, plants, stones, sand, etcetera? This is something that I can work with. I can even divide the question into smaller parts. In the following I will explore the possible inner reasons, successively in relation to human beings and animals (step 1), trees and plants (step 2), natural elements and objects (step 3) and last but not least, inventions and ideas (step 4).

Step 1. The three little pigs

The reasons of human beings and animals are the most obvious. I would like explain this by referring to the story of the three little pigs. The big bad wolf blows away the houses of the first two little pigs, but he can’t do so with the third house, because the third little pig has built a house of stone. As the proverb says: ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, the little pig is smart because he doesn’t have the strength to beat the wolf. Intelligence and strength are two themes of the story. But what background motives are there? In their simplest form I can discover two things that motivate people: ‘life’ and ‘death’.

- Life is the positive force. Thanks to it, we want to be happy, to love and to reproduce.
- Death is the negative force. Thanks to it, we do not want to suffer, to be hungry and to be ill.

Life and death are in balance. Some people are more driven by life, other more by death. Per person, it can depend on the moment, which force is more present than the other. The positive force shows itself more in terms of happiness, the negative force in terms of fear. In words, happiness is what we all want, but sometimes that’s only a part of the truth. If the negative force is more present, happiness stands on the second place. It that case, our first goal is to prevent death (pain, hunger, illness). Only then we can feel something like ‘happiness’ and concentrate on a higher purpose.

We want to give and to receive, to feel and to experience, to build and to make, to know and to learn. But… we are not pulling the strings. Even if we don’t suffer from pain, hunger and illness, we still realize that tomorrow our happiness can have gone. That’s why we build walls around us, equipped with pantries, emergency supplies and other ‘securities’. It gives us the feeling that we controll it all. But we don’t.

Step 2. The five pine cones

Which inner force motivates trees and plants? They are much further away from us, human beings and animals, but I can think about them having a soul. Because trees and plants are living creatures and know the forces of life and death. The positive force is very obvious indeed: trees and plants use to grow on the most inhospitable places on earth.

A nice example of what trees and plants might feel is given by the children’s book ‘The River’ written by Brigitte Sidjanski¹. The main characters are five pine cones. The have certain feelings that are much more modest than ours. Human beings don’t notice any of these and therefore usually deny them. But in this picture book the pine cones feel connected. Life goes as it goes, but still they know, when they arrive somewhere, if they want to stay or to travel further.

The cones are making a journey to the unknown. They roll down the mountain and let the river take them to where it may. Whenever a cone has found a nice place, he decides to settle, to germinate and to become a tree. The story takes you to the world of trees and plants. For me, it was a surprising and refreshing perspective and I certainly recommend it. For those who do not want to buy it, you can read it on the internet too².

Step 3. The dancing can

Is it possible that elements and objects are driven by forces inside them? Do they know the forces of life and death? Not long ago, I was cycling along a square where the wind was blowing freely. In the middle of the square an empty can of Coke was dancing on the wind. I wondered how long this can would go on with dancing. Maybe until the wind stops. Maybe until the can occasionally ends up in a place where the wind doesn’t blow. Or, and that would really be exciting, until the can doesn’t feel like dancing anymore.

But is it likely that the can is driven by forces as ment above? Does the can know happiness? Would be nice to hear it say: ‘Yippee, it’s dancing time!’ Does the can know what fear is? I don’t know. I only know that the can is subject to forces of nature like the wind. Suppose that the can has a will of its own, can it go against the forces of nature? It doesn’t look like it, because when the wind stops blowing, the can stops dancing.

Note: There might be more things in heaven and earth. After the wind has died, wouldn’t the can secretly go on dancing? There are people who perceive these things. I myself wondered how a key chain, a key of which is inserted in the lock, can move back and forth endlessly. Is it the gost of my grandpa that is showing up? He had something with keys, watches and clocks. Is it my fantasy or is there more than we know? On this moment I only perceive the result of something I cannot explain. But maybe there is another dimension…

Step 4. The wheel

Unfortunately, I have to finish this writing here. Please read the follow-up in my next blog! To compensate for this, I made a short poem:

Piglet, Wolf and House

Piglet is small
Wolf is big
House is strong
Piglet is weak
Wolf is crooked
House is straight
Piglet is happy
Wolf is angry
House is nice
Piglet is smart
Wolf is stupid
House is home.

Corresponding cartoon: