The circle is a spiral that turns on itself.

The rhythm of life, the up and down of it, is also a cycle. The wave-form that is so fundamental to physics and the circle that is so central to philosophy tries to describe the rhythm of life. Each of itself fails. But combined they succeed with simple clarity. Combined, the shape of the cycle, the profile of the wave, is the spiral.

Science and religion would examine the mystery of life, but the discipline of each requires a fixed point of view. One will not venture to the other easily and hope to remain true to its principles.

A fixed point of view sees the mystery of life end-on, or top-on. A fixed point of view has no capacity to see both ends at the same time. A model of life from a fixed point of view that describes its shape as a wave or as a circle is both true and incomplete.

In describing energy, it can appear that while energy pulses positive to negative, it also orbits in a pattern indefinitely. We can see this pattern in life while we mark the cycle of the seasons and of the human heart. We see the up and down as we follow the good and bad alternately. We might believe that life itself is a spiral.

Energy turns on an orbit, either pointing outward or inward, and the center of this movement is both the beginning and the end of its movement. That is the optical illusion of a spiral seen from the top. The movement suggests to me the rhythm of life, that at the heart of living, we find ourselves perpetually turning over, beginning again.

As Dad would say when asked how things are going, "Oh, up and down; up and down."