I watched a wonderful documentary today, BETWEEN THE FOLDS, about origami which won a Peabody award and is totally great.
I’ve never thought that much about origami beyond that it seems rather interesting, but the world of these artist is AMAZING. Just look at what they can do with a single piece of paper, no cuts, no tape or glue — simply folding:
I very much liked the beginning of the director’s statement on the film’s website: “At its heart, Between the Folds is a film about potential. The potential of an uncut paper square. The potential of a wild scientific idea. The potential to see things differently.” And the ending: “this has also been a project about transformation—not only of paper squares, but of people and lives also.”
As I was watching, I was reminded of one of my very favorite books growing up, A WRINKLE IN TIME, which I re-read last year and loved. The first book signing I ever went to as a junior high school student was for Madeleine L’Engle because I admired her work so much. I just sort of HAD to show up.
I was reminded of A WRINKLE IN TIME because the tesseract is all about folding space and time (hence the title) in some kind of mystical, quantum physics-y way that we all know deep down is possible I think. [It’s echoed in DUNE where people travel across the galaxy by those drugged out worms that can fold space.]
I did feel the urge to be able to fold time together because I spent the bulk of the day in Miracle Generating calls which oddly have not yielded a penny, but instead two strong possibilities to teach yoga retreats at super-high end spas. IE, I’d love to fold time right into that next luxury vacation if I could.
Another highlight was a very fruitful hour long conversation with marketing wizard Ray that yielded 3 positioning statements we can keep crafting so that I’ll someday be able to cogently answer the question “what do you do” in a succinct way that makes sense and is compelling.
And, inspired by all my desires to fold space and time, I decided to see if a WRINKLE IN TIME the movie was available for streaming and it is and I am half-way through. It’s not great, but we couldn’t really expected that from any adaptation of such a specific, beloved, and imaginative book.
I haven’t fully processed it all yet, but I actually think there’s something about origami that emphasizes another aspect of the tesseract; rather than traveling, it’s more about constructing all reality from one universal substance through infinite folds and layers. In an origami universe everything is always totally connected, and only temporarily folded into a shape, akin to the wave merging back into the ocean philosophical insight about life. [FYI, one of the stars of BETWEEN THE FOLDS is the youngest ever M.I.T. professor Erik Demaine who teaches math involving/inspired by origami.]
Anyway, maybe in tonight’s and tomorrow morning’s meditations, I’ll see if I can tesseract my way straight towards luxury.
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