Strands of trAchilles (*potential)

[kavaris]

The following is an abstract introduction to "writing" (on the topic of potential) though it is just an example, a filament of wisdom you might say.

Humour me here; As I start this as a kind of biological introduction, but to a larger idea (that youll have to discover for yourself, as it is just an abstract introduction) And I present it abstractly so that one may go on to think of things on their own terms, from their own point of view, by \*filling in the details, wherever and whatever (...)

Lets take this word: trichome, that comes from Greek θρίξ (thríx) meaning "hair". A trichome is one of the small hair-like outgrowths on a plant's surface.

When it comes to those most prominent hairs on a planting plant (i wont be describing the roots, but theyre an integral part), that is~the like of the fruiting cotton, flax (linen), dandelion and milkweed thistles; During immaturity/development, their cells divide and elongate into fine strands (hence the title).

These strands dont just grow, they also twist (both in regards to those sub-domains, in the DnA leading up to, and the entire structure itself)

… And in their twisting and dancing, those strand-like cells — as in cotton (Gossypium) — arise from the outermost layer of the seed. This layer, the epidermis, contains thousands of cells (the cells of said strands, aka ‘seed hairs’, though they are not seeds at all!).

In regards to how it grows, as it is elongating, cellulose is deposited in thick layers along the inner wall. Later, the cell dies, dries, and collapses into that flattened, twisted ribbon shape (you could see if/when under a microscope/magnified / enlarged context).

In dandelion, many cells go on to form fiber bundles, and each seed forms its own fine structures from floral tissues. The cells/fibers elongate while the stem grows, then thicken their walls w/ cellulose. And, in the case of the tufts (flower) each seed forms/develops its own unique tuft.

And in the case of the individual hairs on the milkweed thistle plant, their strands do not act as support fibers like that of the flax, nor are they seed epidermal tubes like that on the cotton plant~As they are actually part of the fruiting structure, for those specific thistle weed fruits that it is to bear in the end.

If you think of a human hair~which is usually around 60–100 µm in diameter, a cotton fiber is several times thinner than that: (In the thinnest case) growing at 12 µm diameter → its circumference would be ≈ 38 µm; In the thickest case, growing at 25 µm diameter → its circumference would be ≈ 78 µm

And for it to grow at all, it requires both light and heat. Assuming the weather and all its nutrients are in balance, it should become a matured plant — cotton or otherwise. Water presses outward within each cell; light drives the making of structure; Warmth (contraction) keeps the functional & complex mechanisms of the plant animated; The bottomline being, in the twisting & dancing of everything, and in all of the commotion, the mechanism has to "move as one continuous pulse", a waltz of expansion and folding, expansion and folding, expansion and folding, over and over and over, and, it is precisely that twist, that is required in ALL of this -

In order to get the most potential out of anything, a harmony of everything.

[kavaris]

(part 2)

Just to clear the air, theres two significant Greek writers who demonstrate or who wrote on the nature of potential (from a different perspective, more technical mind you).

Aristotle calls it δύναμις (potentiality or potency) and ἐνέργεια (actuality/or just *being-at-work) where he argues that potential has a real mode of being, and its actualization is directed toward a \*telos. So thats a very intriguing direction to take things.

Philo of Alexandria specifically is interesting too, for he inherits Aristotelian categories, but then he fuses them with Platonic and Jewish thoughts and/or reasoning. He uses dunamis (active energies that may also transcend in some senses), and the Logos, which then receives and articulates these energies into intelligible patterns — it is the mind that thinks God's thoughts in a form that can become a world. Matter then receives these patterns and becomes the structured cosmos.

Philo inherits an underlying problem from this problem, which is how the God of Hebrew scripture acts in the world—As he creates, judges, shows mercy, speaks — but Platonic/Stoic philosophy demands that the highest principle be absolutely transcendent, immutable, beyond contact with matter. How do you reconcile a personal acting God with a philosophically pure One?
His answer is the δυνάμεις — divine powers that are neither fully God nor separate from God (And this is also described in a simplistic way by commentators on many forms of religious scripture as well).

The δυνάμεις are the real extensions of his nature that reach downward into creation without compromising his transcendence.
The two primary ones he emphasizes are:
ἡ ποιητική δύναμις — the creative/productive power (associated with the divine name Theos, ...)
ἡ βασιλική δύναμις — the kingly/ruling power (associated with Kyrios, Lord as sovereign)

So the sequence is something like:
God (utterly transcendent, beyond being)
    ↓  via δυνάμεις
Logos (divine mind / world of Forms / instrument)
    ↓  via the act of creation
Intelligible World (archetypes, numbers, patterns)
    ↓
Sense-perceptible World (matter receiving form)