Look around the lines and you will find what’s equal.
The symbol for equal in mathematical terms is a sign with two parallel lines (=) of same length generally placed in between two objects that are deemed to be similar. Yet the question remains whether two objects can be absolutely similar.
From a manufacturing perspective, widgets are generally produced with a given set of specifications – boundaries or lines as we can call it – using a particular substance and a set mold. One can certainly build the argument that any object built to specification using a particular kind of mold coming out of a set manufacturing process using similar tools and technique will be the same as another widget coming out of out the exact some process.
However, even though this is the case, there are still defects – those one or two outliers – that can still be produced. Even the process is not perfect. This is why Six Sigma in manufacturing basically got invented as a means of reducing the number defects being developed.
What this means is that the likelihood of two widgets being exactly the same coming out of the same process is very high if you compare them – but again, there is also a very slight chance of a defect. So, one could argue that 99 % of the time that we compare two widgets, they will be same but a 1% likelihood they are different.
Now, it’s not the 99% same that I want to address – it’s the 1% difference that I think we should look at. This 1% can be a variance in many factors that doesn’t comply with the set specifications. These can be alterations to the widget’s weight, depth, width, height, composition, color, etc.
Maybe this is coincidence – but the 1% actually sounds like us human beings. We are not perfect coming out of a set manufacturing process of 9 months. We are not meant to be – that what’s makes the process of human development so special.
Let’s look at an orange. We can say that one orange from a tree in Italy from one region is equal to an orange from another tree in a region of Italy. What we are comparing to make things indeed equal are things we see from the outside – the color orange, dimples on the surface, a sorta round figure in the fruit. This is how us humans classify an orange and hence an orange from Italy from a one region is = to an orange from another region in Italy.
Let’s take this further. We can then start to look at an orange in Florida. Based on the classification of the orange from Italy we can indeed say that the orange from Florida is equal to the orange from Italy – they have the same color, dimples and shape. Now we have started to create the community of oranges around us from a region-perspective to a global-one.
Let’s bring an apple into the picture. Can one say that an apple is the same as an orange? From the outside no – but what if we made the comparison at the 10,000 ft. level? What if we look at factors of it simply being a fruit, providing essential vitamins, or having a sweet taste – then are they equal? From my analysis – Yes!
In math the number 4 = 2 + 2 is correct – however, what’s missing in this is equation is further clarity of breadth and depth – the concept of likeness that we see when we compare one side to the other. The truth is that while 4 people = 2 people + 2 people is correct – it’s incorrect to assume from a random sample, for example, that the weight of 4 people from the U.S. is equal to the weight of 2 people from China and 2 from Germany.
What this means is that the word equal is a relative term. If we look at objects from the outside or in fine detail, we are all unequal – this is the way things were intended to be.
What we need to do is look at objects from a much higher level – the 10,000 ft. level – to find similarities. One of the quests for finding happiness starts by looking deep within to see how we are equal to those around us. We constantly put more pain within our bodies by continuously showing and how and why we are dissimilar. Differences can only be accepted when things in common can be found.
Here is my point: the world we live in is not intended to be equal – this is why diversity is so special – and this is why everyone is born different, even though we go through the same “manufacturing” process. We all are born with defects. This fundamental fact is what makes us equal. It’s only when we can start to honor differences that we can indeed embrace similarities.
There is also no such thing as the perfectly divided object. For example let’s cut a whole apple in half and then cut one half into ¼s. From this we can indeed say that ½ of the same apple is equal to two (2) ¼ of the same apple (½= ¼ +¼) – there is no way that I can say that each ¼ cut is the same as the other ¼ piece. No cut is perfect. The ½ piece is also an approximation.
Divisions are not perfect – but they exist in society. We are not symmetrical even coming out of the same object. The definition of equality is one of spirit. Even the use of the equal symbol (=) is not perfect. There is one line higher than another that shows inequality from a materialistic perspective if we were to poke fingers at the way it is represented.
So what is equal then if this symbol is focused on materialistic objects? It’s the space around the sign – the areas we can’t see. No two objects are the same but our human mind can make them be the same. We need to create equality from our mind, not inequality from what we see, hear, or touch – this is material. Equality can’t be touched, it’s immaterial.
It seems as if equality is only true of like-objects or parts of the same object. It can’t just be that we look at two dissimilar objects and say that they are similar. Or can we? Are we not looking hard enough to see what is similar? What you realize is that there are several things at the conscious level that make us equal that we can’t see and lots more – for example the way we breathe, blink our eye, the way our hearts beat, the color of our blood. All things naked to the eye are equal.
We don’t need to look at how we look or act or where we come from to put an unequal sign between us. If you want to find a reason to be equal you have to search to find similarities. Perhaps the reason that we have all been gifted with living life on this planet is reason enough that we are equal. Perhaps it’s emotions such as crying or laughing that makes us equal.
Go deep and you will see there is equality between all of us. You need to drop borders and look around the lines to find it.