Saturday, April 11, 2009

Why Fulcrum?


I was browsing through some poly dictionary stuff today and noticed that the term I use for my place in this relationship structure isn't there. The words that I see noted are "pivot" and "hinge". It got me to thinking about why I opted to go with fulcrum?


It has to do with what a fulcrum is. A point, somewhere between more than one object, that the system balances on. To me, pivot is a term that denotes turning from one thing to another, and that isn't terribly descriptive of what I want to manifest. Hinge sounds more like opening to one thing, while closing to another, again, not what I am seeking.


For me, being the person in between is an active space to occcupy. I have taken two (or more) people into my life that aren't in relationship with each other, and asked them to co-exist on a great many levels. My job is to keep the system as close to balanced as possible, and that requires conscious effort at times. It's a bit of a responsibility, but hopefully they're having fun like the folks in the picture. ;)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the idea that a fulcrum can balance two objects even when they are not always of equal weight - at least so says my mental physics! Though that would put the weightier object further away... thereby perhaps undoing the analogy ;-)

MENSA folks please discuss!

Anonymous said...

Oh sweet-bee! Another thing I like about a fulcrum point is that it isn't always a fixed place. As the load shifts, the fulcrum point can move to accomodate that.

There are likely to be times where one part of the "load" is down, and another is up, but that is the nature of long-term relationships anyways. People move around in common space, closer, farther apart, moods or a sense of intimacy being higher and lower. As long as we're choosing to occupy the same relationship plane, it's still workable.

PG also pointed out that yes, I am a libra. ;)

ourquad said...

I so like your term better than the others!!!!!