¶ Tension (1)
Index Entry
Tension:
"Now I am going to give you an analogy. It’s actually a model in our processes of thinking. Say your were a kid and your mother said, ‘I would like you to go out and hang something on the clothesline’-- so you had a clothesline. Later on you are getting on a boat and somebody says, You have never been in a boat before. Now this is called a “sheet.” It’s like the sheet on your bed. I want you to pull in on this jib sheet.’ And then you find that there are halyards and other kinds of lines, then you pull on those and you get used to all kinds of lines. Then you are pulling on the anchor rope.
“So then the clothesline and the different pieces of line you have handled on your boat rotted and you get in someone else’s boat and you see ropes again. They have ropes nowadays with better cordage, of nylon, and dacron, and mylar. In the sum total you have a great many experiences with tension, but every one is a special case. Then you begin to draw from all those special cases certain generalized principles about tension. When you pull on a rope it tends to straighten out.”
