I love this picture of a round tree in a square field. It even seems that there is a miniature replica of the tree to the left. Or the tree could represent a balloon on a string, or a planet suspended (by a string?) in space. The tree – the round crown and the straight trunk – reflect what I have written about the progression from I to O. I is O in profile or from above. Perhaps the I is hollow; after all, most of an atom is said to be empty, isn’t it? Are we mainly space? What do we choose to fill this space with? An I – like an eye – when it is opened becomes a circle: O. So O (live to love, sin to son) is an opened I. The field, however, is square. This responds to the indefinite article, a/an, which can only be applied to something that is individual. We are individuals, but how long can we remain so?

Meanwhile, in language, I am struck by how similar the words “will” and “evil” are. It is very easy to apply our will to do evil, but this isolates us, leaves us alone. We are not part of a community. “Will” is also the auxiliary to speak about the future, our plans, our intentions. If we combine “I” and “will”, we get “I’ll” (or “ill”); if we combine the plural, however, “we” and “will”, we get “we’ll”, that is “well”. An incentive to think in terms of the plural, just as “me” can become “we” if we upturn the first letter, or the plural of “you” is “us” (isn’t it?). Let us apply the progression from I to O to our “will”. We get “low” in reverse, we become humble.