There are few shapes that have universal appeal in today’s world as the circle. Certainly circles have not enjoyed such appeal in the 1500s, as Galileo may attest. Indeed there are some tribes in this modern day and age that maintain that the Earth is flat, despite evidence to the contrary. Astronomers acknowledge that our beloved planet is not precisely spherical; though a ball would somewhat approximate its shape. In many societies, the concept of reincarnation pervades the very consciousness of the populace. Perhaps historians and theologians may be better qualified to discuss such issues of circular logic.
The basic structure of the electric bulb has for the large part remained unchanged since its invention over a century ago: to this day the majority of electric bulbs has maintained a circular base, mostly including some form of screw-top, a structure that can be found in glass and polystyrene bottles in the modern home. Glasses, both of the drink and optical variety, compact discs, mini discs, cassette and video players, plates, bowls, saucepans, lawn mowers, and automobiles, all utilise some property that is characteristic of the circle. Newton’s particle theories in physics have continued to be studies by students in high schools; children are encouraged to draw diagrams of particles, atoms, and electrons in circular form, arguably by convention.
In biology, the circle appears prominently in the life cycles of various species including our own, abstracted from leaps in evolution. The water cycle is commonly used to explain changes in the weather, as if it can be predicted with the certainty of a coin toss (either it will rain, or it will not); young economists are introduced to the circular flow of income and the boom and bust cycle, which incidentally averages seven years; business managers are often tutored on the intricacies of the business cycle and the product cycle.
A thin circle of gold or silver is frequently used to represent love and fidelity. Granted that modern wedding bands may not necessarily complete the circle, the connotation of union between two persons (regardless of gender or sexual preference) remains unclouded. This August, countries from five continents, represented by five circles, of which at least one is contained in every flag of the world, will gather to celebrate a union of sporting togetherness in Athens. Athletes will attempt to break from the mould that surrounds their limitations, to achieve personal, national, Olympic, and world records.
The need to simplify life is matched only by the correspondingly desire to complicate what one may term as ‘the simple life’. The notion that life is a cycle of wealth and plenty for one group, and one of poverty and lack for another is as simple as it is deceptive. The reality that time is a continuum as opposed to a cycle of twenty-four hours, and the freedom that this represents, is too often lost among the cacophony of voices that clamour for social welfare, medical benefits, affirmative action, and sameness in the mistaken belief that these equate to, rather than approximate, equal opportunity, responsibility for one’s individual health, fair play, and equality.
