Edgy

Just remembering the first time someone called me "edgy" is enough to set my teeth on edge. What was meant? Was the attribution implying an ectomorphic possession of sharp edges? Or did the observer find me an endomorphic mass of largely visceral tension and emotional twang? I prefer an uber-mesomorphic perspective implying a bold, provocative, and unconventionally larger than life cutting edge trend-setting.

Experience of edges is edgy.

And I mean that in each of these three suggested ways. There is that ecto edge place of transition, the moment in real time and space of shift, of change, of geometric or internal perpendicularity. To this real edge phenomena there are edgy response possibilities of both the other suggested types. There can be the endo-edgy tension or the meso-edgy freedom release.

Enough edgy verbosity. Let's go for the surreal edgy experience. Imagine a rock in water. With the mind's eye, go to the edge where solid meets liquid. Get smaller and closer, betwixt and between. Go into the atoms themselves, with electron cloud outer edges of rock and water dancing together now. The hard and the fluid become the essence of what edge is. The essence of what edge is edgy. Where does rock end and water begin? This edgy question is not for the faint of heart.

Examination of ecto-edges makes them disappear, evaporating into an edgy being of what they are not. And then we respond. We can fall into a chasm of edgelessness, with the endo-tension one has in an amusement park ride with floor falling away: terrorized edgy drowning. And yet at this double edged cutting edge we also fly with the meso-edgy power of provocative freedom that is bliss.

I can feel this full and null edge experience with edgeless rock touching water, or flame touching wick, or in the empty edgeless eternity between my own breathing out and breathing in.

This experience of groundlessness, source of both bliss and terror, is extreme. Too extreme for the likes of the ordinary. The ordinary is built on edges that do not so readily evaporate, and much of our studied human effort is dedicated to the preservation of edges. It is the definitive pursuit of trivial truth.

I am still mourning over one example of this edgy enterprise. On Aug. 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union redefined "planet." A planet must be large enough to be culturally defined as planet (seen in orbit), structurally large enough to be spherical, and dynamically large enough to clear all other objects out of its orbit.

On Aug. 23, 2006, there were nine planets. On the following day, there were eight planets and five dwarf planets, one of which is the demoted Pluto. For if a celestial body only meets defining qualification one (orbit), it is a "small solar system body." If it meets one and two (orbiting sphere), it is a dwarf planet. To be a real planet, all three crite- ria must be met. The edges are drawn tight, and the world is drawn and quartered, ossified into compliance, at least for this moment.

So what? What difference does it make if Pluto is a planet? Maybe none, after all. But there are further considerations.

In the latter 18th century, Carl Linnaeus created edges separating our planetary reality into three kingdoms: animal, vegetable, mineral. From out of the evolution of this system there are now no fewer than six kingdoms in three domains in the superkingdom of the living, which is distinguished from the non-living superkingdom. To go into the subtleties of these edges is beyond the capacity of the inside of the edges of this page. And again, one might ask: So what?

What might at first seem merely academic and irrelevant edges create enormous and relevant implications. The theological implications are particularly edgy. For it is written and believed by many: According to the life format of the creature, so shall be decided ultimate and eternal fate. Some question, and some do not question, the location of these edges. Do animals go to heaven? How about cute and cuddly pet animals? How about rocks? How about humans who do not believe in the same edges?

Part of the Linnaeus system involved distinction edges within the human species. He posited choleric red men, phlegmatic black men, yellow melancholic men, and white sanguine men, as well as monstrous men including dwarfs, giants, and Hottentots.

And if you were born on the wrong side of the edge, or were a woman on any edge, the edges have immense consequence. We laugh at the absurdity, perhaps, but do the same ourselves. Our edges are still alive and unwell.

My pirate resolution is edgy: I am in process of dissolving the outer edges of my skin and of my mind. Perhaps we will meet in the betwixt and between, edgy and loving it all. n

— Rx is the FloridaWeekly muse who hopes to inspire profound mutiny in all those who care to read. Our Rx may be wearing a pirate cloak of invisibility, but emanating from within this shadow is hope that readers will feel free to respond. Who knows: You may even inspire the muse. Make contact if you dare.