I’ve had this picture on my desk for quite a while.
M.C. Escher is no doubt famous for exploiting the natural consequence of attempting to view an object in lower dimensions (as well as other mathematical concepts, such as recursions, self-reference, etc.). Hence, this is why he can beautifully depict paradoxes that subtly pass the inattentive eye.
From this, we can extract a simple piece of wisdom from math: we can’t help but be limited by our perspectives. As Escher so poignantly displays, it is not difficult to misconstrue the world with our perspectives. In fact, it could cause us to believe that the water is indeed running upstream! Given that the depiction is the only perspective available, this conclusion cannot be avoided. To overcome this problem in math, the “world” that the object exists in has to be modeled. In other words, the mathematician gains an objective way of studying an object, regardless of a limited perspective.
Things in life are not too different. While we may never technically gain an “objective” way of studying the popular concept of life, we can expand our minds and our perspectives to better understand them, rather than question them. Douglas Hofstadter calls this “unasking,” where we attempt to understand the world first without questioning how it is (yes, you are encouraged to question why, but that’s another matter). In this way, the metaphor of the water running upstream is no longer a paradoxical and strange concept, but quite a simple thing.
I suppose the ultimate conclusion of this rambling would be to encourage this openness with the world. If the world ever seems to function in such an unorthodox way, then forget whatever the hell your “orthodox” means and embrace this “unorthodoxy.” Life is all about these moments that make us humble about how small humans are; those moments that make you say “woah.”
