Professor Mary Holmes called paradox "the natural condition of the

world. It is both the working principle and the mystery of life... We are

always surrounded by paradox because all of creation is the union of

opposites. All energy comes from the union of opposites."3 Holmes is

here tying our experience of paradox to our consciousness of opposites.

And her insight reminds us that though our human categories of thought

are insufficient to contain all of reality, yet our experience of paradoxical

contraries invites us to ask: What is the unity that binds these opposites

into relation to one another, that reveals two mutual exclusives as

paradoxically parts of one underlying reality?

The following observations consider without finality some of the

fundamental contraries that we human persons experience as paradoxes

in contemplating ourselves and the world.