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Several decades ago, I came to realize that virtually all things that we think of, nouns, whether concrete or abstract, are really systems of smaller things. The solar system makes a very good illustrative example. These parts interact with each other, following some laws of their nature and the nature of the larger system.
Nothing is ever in perfect equilibrium. A system that lasts long enough for us to notice it and to give it a name must withstand perturbations--the forces that keep it coherent must constantly push everything back toward some never-reached equilibrium. Up to a point, the more the system is perturbed, the more strongly it is pushed back toward its canonical form.
But if the perturbation is too strong, the parts escape the forces keeping them in order and the system rapidly ceases to be.
On February 20, one of my favorite such systems, the man who taught me to look at disparate things and to consider their commonalities and differences so I could conceive this idea of systems, my father, suffered a major perturbation. For nearly two months, the forces holding him together and the momentum pulling him apart were in close balance. So that even this morning, we had great hope he would return home, almost as healthy as he had been before.
But today, he was overcome by the many ailments that were pulling him apart. What remains of him is the effects he has already had on the world and the voice--the way of thinking that he has left in many of us. Chaos has sundered the rest.
The funeral will be on Thursday, April 19, at 1:00 PM at
Crabiel Parkwest Funeral Chapel in New Brunswick, NJ 80901.
(Please note that is a different place than the similarly named funeral home in Milltown.)
The funeral service will be followed by burial at the cemetery of Conngregation B'nai Tikvah, the cemetery being
Washington Cemetery, 104 Deans Rhode Hall Rd, North Brunswick (South Brunswick Township), NJ 08902
There will be an informal gathering after the burial at a place yet to be determined.
Nothing is ever in perfect equilibrium. A system that lasts long enough for us to notice it and to give it a name must withstand perturbations--the forces that keep it coherent must constantly push everything back toward some never-reached equilibrium. Up to a point, the more the system is perturbed, the more strongly it is pushed back toward its canonical form.
But if the perturbation is too strong, the parts escape the forces keeping them in order and the system rapidly ceases to be.
On February 20, one of my favorite such systems, the man who taught me to look at disparate things and to consider their commonalities and differences so I could conceive this idea of systems, my father, suffered a major perturbation. For nearly two months, the forces holding him together and the momentum pulling him apart were in close balance. So that even this morning, we had great hope he would return home, almost as healthy as he had been before.
But today, he was overcome by the many ailments that were pulling him apart. What remains of him is the effects he has already had on the world and the voice--the way of thinking that he has left in many of us. Chaos has sundered the rest.
The funeral will be on Thursday, April 19, at 1:00 PM at
Crabiel Parkwest Funeral Chapel in New Brunswick, NJ 80901.
(Please note that is a different place than the similarly named funeral home in Milltown.)
The funeral service will be followed by burial at the cemetery of Conngregation B'nai Tikvah, the cemetery being
Washington Cemetery, 104 Deans Rhode Hall Rd, North Brunswick (South Brunswick Township), NJ 08902
There will be an informal gathering after the burial at a place yet to be determined.
