Shadow Metaphors

A shadow requires some source material, such as light; some blocking agent, such as a tree; and some region that is unaffected by the source material, due to interference by the blocking agent, adjacent, perhaps, to an unblocked region. A shadow is reluctant to the changes that would normally result from the source material - the source material requiring some energetic character as it relocates from origin to conclusion. This means that the source material involves a transportation or communication - a transfer of energy or mass over a distance. In turn, a propellant is inherent, whether single-shot, such as a bullet or light from the sun, or continuously supplied, such as gravity or a rocket. This also means that the blocking agent is forced to absorb or deflect the material, energy or signal; in essence, transferring it into one or more other dimensions than the original vectorial course of the source material.

To be in a shadow is to be protected, whether through intent or accident, from changes that would otherwise occur as a result of incidence with an energetic source material. It is for these very reasons that metaphors surrounding protection and preservation are appropriate, and that the law of conservation of energy must be prevalent in the final equation. The leaves of a tree, for example, may protect the rock below from thermal expansion as a result of impact from the suns' rays, by deflecting part of the energy into sugars via chlorophyll. Part of the suns' energy is stored for a period of time in the sugar molecules, deflected perpendicularly from energy into mass; while another portion remains as or becomes new heat.

The blocking agent may profit, then, from the interception, or sacrifice itself - both being acts of intent; or may, as bark, suffer incidental harm, fortified for sheer self-preservation. It may not, by design, be prepared for such an intervention - being drafted ad hoc by predator or prey, for example. It may, as a stone upon the land, situate itself to serve inertia best, providing unintentional shade to the opportunistic ant or earthworm. The blocking agent may exchange a loss of itself for gain or preservation, re-growing itself like a snakes skin or wearing to its demise of function, a temporary fortification for temporary weakness - a child sheltered by parent, for example. The blocking agent impresses its character upon the sheltered domain: the shadow a silhouette of the continuum of planes lying perpendicular to the vector of the source material.

A something becomes a nothing when a shadow is formed, relative to a given blocked vector. While an everything becomes a something relative to source and destination.

All of the suns light reaches the ground except that which is blocked en route. A given photon will become blocked from the ground entirely, or allowed to hit the ground entirely, depending on its course with respect to the blocking agent. At all times, however, a given photon is simply acting on its' nature to march straight onward until it hits something: whether the energy of collision is "spent" or "wasted" becomes a matter of perspective - polar opposite perspectives to be precise - thus, equal. What is agreed is that the sum of blocked light plus the sum of the unblocked light equals the sum of all available light (for now we'll just consider that reflected light re-enters the system only to ultimately become blocked or subtracted from the system).

If we channel the source material in such a way as to make it identical to the shape and size of the blocking agent, we get a dead-end street - a shut-off or terminal. If we alternate the existence of the blocking agent, such as we do with a stop-light at an intersection, we regulate the flow of source material along the given vector. This is the value of a transistor: to control the flow and shadow of electrons. Our computer is a concoction of such flows and shadows - ones and zeroes - with the goal of engineers fixed squarely on producing the smallest "one", the "zero-est" zero, and the fastest friction-free traffic flow. Cool!

Since we are talking about doors anyway, perhaps we should have a look at the relationship between doors and shadows...

A door at a bar creates a shadow of people. The doorman, in allowing some folks through but not others, is creating a shadow form not in the common shape of a shadow as we know it, but a shadow of time-space. That is, that long lineup of willing patrons will all eventually pass through this portal - just not necessarily yet. Placing time sideways, we see all the patrons arrive at the same moment, all go through the portal into the identical space, but the only thing that blocks any given patron is the phrase "Not yet, just a few minutes and I'll let a couple more through!" Imagine the blocking agent as a flickering image: sometimes wall, sometimes window - stalling for time, but ultimately allowing all things to pass.

I just inadvertently described a cup, didn't I?

Certainly drinking from a cup may occur in sips, gulps or guzzles, just as the doors of a bar may run from flat open to slammed shut over the course of an evening. And that "18 hour girdle, size 12" is a cup of a fixed size in time-space. But why does time-space seem so prevalent in the shadow realm?

The shadow requires a moving source material. A material moving a distance over a time, propelled by some form of energy. Even if the destination is non-dimensional, such as a point, a path from source to blocking agent or destination is needed - even if it is only one-dimensional. Our experience with energy, however, is that energy creates space, even when none is immediately at hand. Thus, if we have energy, we tend to also have time-space. Our car depends on it.

A car converts time-space being expressed as expansion into rotary movement, then linear motion. It does this by creating a shadow to the force of expansion which does not exist where the piston is. This means that the force of expansion is unblocked in the direction of the chamber, allowing the power stroke to express itself along that one vector as motion. The low beam light on a vehicle reflect this by reflecting light in all directions safe one - which is a fat pencil of light best aimed a short distance ahead on the road, coupled in an offset fashion with the other low beam light.

A few paragraphs ago, I pointed out that "reflected light re-enters the system only to ultimately become blocked or subtracted from the system". Yet above it is clearly being applied in the non-shadow portion of a system. This may seem contradictory. That is, unless reflected is relative.

As with other elements within a system, what is source, blocking agent or destination are always relative. If we look at the phrase "matter or energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only change form", we get a sense that even absorption appears to carry a sense of reflection. That is, what is absorbed today may be re-emitted in another form tomorrow - a sort of "delayed, altered reflection". This muddies the metaphor by suggesting there really is no such thing as a blocking agent, but rather an agent of deferral.

But is that not what a leaf is?

More to come!

The source may be passive and destination active, such as sunlight and a parasol user, or; the source may be active and the destination passive,