In looking at the world around us, and in projecting the effects of various results of certain actions, one of the biggest logical errors is to think arithmetically.
It is not wrong to say 1 + 1 = 2 or 2 + 2 = 4. But people are not identical widgets that can be added up that way. They have their own unique traits and skills. And when each does his own thing, they impact and intermingle with those around them to create effects that could not be wholly anticipated or generated any other way. Thus the putting together of four people is not like adding 4 single units and getting a mass equal to 4 times that of one of them.
What you get is the contributions of each individual, an arithmetic result, PLUS the effects of how each individual contribution influences those of the other individuals to create more unique results possible only when the individual contributions interact, combine, and become a contribution of their own.
These are the overtones, in musical metaphor, that the harmony of life has to offer. The richness, the layers of beauty we can experience when each is true to their own uniqueness, and open to the influences of others’ uniqueness.
This is the great music of life.
At The Rainbow 