The rest of the quotation is “sic stabit contiguum rigidum.” No, this isn’t a lesson on architecture, but rather a lesson on how we can turn stubborn rigidity into flexibility. The famous line is Robert Hooke’s and it applies to a hanging rope or chain suspended between two hooks (just had to say that, sorry). Basically, “as hangs the flexible line (or chain), so but inverted will stand the rigid arch.”*
Hooke saw that arches were catenaries, curves that mirrored the shape that a flexible line takes when it is suspended between two points. The strength of the line and the pull of gravity find a balance. You can see catenaries everywhere, but power lines are good examples. Sometime long ago the Etruscans learned that reversed catenaries make arches, those highly stable and rigid curves of stone. Their knowledge transferred to the Romans and from then on, well, just take a look at any dome, the US Capitol, for example. Turn a catenary upside down, Hooke said, and you’ll have a very strong structure.
Amazing, isn’t it, how the catenary-arch relationship reflects our own flexibility and inflexibility? That same person who seems to find a naturally stable configuration of thought that can, like a suspended cable, move with forces as simple as a blowing wind, cannot yield to the strongest forces of vertical compression. Responding to Earth’s pull, the humble cable hangs. In response to overlying weight, the arch stands proud.
What comes from beneath finds us flexible. What comes from above finds us resistant. Is there a lesson for the belligerent in this? Is there a lesson for those who would communicate with the belligerent in this?
When those with an axe to grind perceive another to speak from above, they stubbornly resist. The better tactic seems to be the invisible pull from below. The next time you encounter belligerence, think the lesson of the catenary. If you want to communicate without resistance, interact from below. You’ll make little progress trying to bend an arch from above.
*Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
Hooke saw that arches were catenaries, curves that mirrored the shape that a flexible line takes when it is suspended between two points. The strength of the line and the pull of gravity find a balance. You can see catenaries everywhere, but power lines are good examples. Sometime long ago the Etruscans learned that reversed catenaries make arches, those highly stable and rigid curves of stone. Their knowledge transferred to the Romans and from then on, well, just take a look at any dome, the US Capitol, for example. Turn a catenary upside down, Hooke said, and you’ll have a very strong structure.
Amazing, isn’t it, how the catenary-arch relationship reflects our own flexibility and inflexibility? That same person who seems to find a naturally stable configuration of thought that can, like a suspended cable, move with forces as simple as a blowing wind, cannot yield to the strongest forces of vertical compression. Responding to Earth’s pull, the humble cable hangs. In response to overlying weight, the arch stands proud.
What comes from beneath finds us flexible. What comes from above finds us resistant. Is there a lesson for the belligerent in this? Is there a lesson for those who would communicate with the belligerent in this?
When those with an axe to grind perceive another to speak from above, they stubbornly resist. The better tactic seems to be the invisible pull from below. The next time you encounter belligerence, think the lesson of the catenary. If you want to communicate without resistance, interact from below. You’ll make little progress trying to bend an arch from above.
*Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
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