• toynbee@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    When I met the woman who would become my wife, I knew nothing of biology. She wasn’t a biologist but was far more knowledgeable on the subject than I. (Side note: this is still true.)

    She told me that fruit is an “interkingdom, interspecies orgy” since it involved multiple partners and participants of both flora and fauna varieties.

    Fascinated by that, I posted the message on my Facebook (it was a long time ago and I didn’t know they were evil). Suddenly, all my friends thought I was weird.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      “Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced.” -Terence McKenna

      • toynbee@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I like the quote, but what does “yang” mean in this context? Thanks in advance.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          McKenna just uses a lot of terms from different philosophies and cultures, most often leaning to Eastern philosophies though.

          Here it’s what you probably thought of, the yang in “to yin and yang”. So if you’re into Chinese creative theory… (but if you’re not you can just tldr; an “active”/“masculine” solution, but I realise those don’t properly translate the concept and simplify it a tad too much)

          In Chinese creative theory, the universe develops out of a primary chaos of primordial qi or material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang, force and motion leading to form and matter. “Yin” is retractive, passive, contractive and receptive in nature in a contrasting relationship to “yang” is repelling, active, expansive and repulsive in principle; this dichotomy in some form, is seen in all things in nature and their patterns of change, difference and transformations. For example, biological, psychological and cosmological seasonal cycles, the historical evolution of landscapes over days, weeks, years to eons. The original meaning of yin was depicted as the northerly shaded side of a hill and yang being the bright southerly aspect. When pertaining to human gender Yin is associated to more rounded feminine characteristics and Yang as sharp and masculine traits.

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang

          • toynbee@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            That is indeed what I thought of, but I wasn’t sure whether to believe it since I’ve never heard it used in isolation. Again, I appreciate the answer.

    • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Your wife sounds awesome. If your friends thought your weirdness was awesome, then they’re rad. If not, they are less awesome than your wife.

      • toynbee@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        My wife is awesome! Thank you for noticing.

        My friends were a mixed bag in terms of how they reacted. However, I don’t think I would marry any of them, so I’ll have to agree that few are as rad as my wife.