Professor Mary Holmes called paradox "the natural condition of the
world. It is both the working principle and the mystery of life... We are
always surrounded by paradox because all of creation is the union of
opposites. All energy comes from the union of opposites."3 Holmes is
here tying our experience of paradox to our consciousness of opposites.
And her insight reminds us that though our human categories of thought
are insufficient to contain all of reality, yet our experience of paradoxical
contraries invites us to ask: What is the unity that binds these opposites
into relation to one another, that reveals two mutual exclusives as
paradoxically parts of one underlying reality?
The following observations consider without finality some of the
fundamental contraries that we human persons experience as paradoxes
in contemplating ourselves and the world.
