The air that surrounds us we can breathe easily and without effort due to its gaseous state. Our lungs are perfectly designed to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. While many areas of the human body are protected with multiple layers, the lungs are a study in exquisite diaphanous design—the barrier between the inhaled air we breathe and our capillary blood averages about one micron in thickness.
Thinness, virtual transparency, is required where absorption of nutrients takes place; barriers arise to protect against contaminants. What’s true for the human body is true for the human mind: we allow certain things into our minds we believe are life-giving, nourishing, and beneficial; we reject the rest. This makes perfect sense, but over time it’s easy to become close-minded, and not be receptive to new ideas and concepts that might re-vitalize our thinking and re-energize our lives.
Webster defines aeriform as “having the nature of air; gaseous; lacking substance or real existence;” he defines incompressible as “incapable of or resistant to compression.”
Aeriform substances conform to any shape that’s given. They can fit any size or configuration, can be made larger or smaller as circumstances dictate. Incompressible substances do not easily conform. They are solid, diamond-like, incapable of being easily shaped or contoured.
Our thinking can at times be aeriform; at other times, incompressible. But what tells us which to use? When should we allow our minds to be one but not the other? There’s no general rule to be followed in all instances, but a good rule of thumb is to be incompressible at the very foundation of things and aeriform when moving above and beyond. Certain basics simply cannot be compromised. Some mistakenly believe that just about everything is subject to negotiation and conciliation, but that’s not true. Some things cannot be compromised, even in the slightest. They are so fundamental that even the smallest encroachment must be deliberately and methodically resisted.
One example would be the bedrock principles of behavior toward others such as fidelity and loyalty. Another would be remaining true to your word. Still another would be never confusing the superficial trappings of intellect with the genuine substance of wisdom.
A sense of proportion is required. One can place great weight on that which is incompressible, but life and growth flourishes on that which is aeriform. Nature understands that both the aeriform and incompressible are required to sustain life. Sound thinking recognizes the place of each, and uses both in the right way at the right time.
By the way, there’s another difference, sometimes overlooked—one can fly on that which is aeriform. Despite (or perhaps because of) it “lacking substance or real existence,” the aeriform enables the greatest degree of autonomy and self-determination—it’s where we are when we’ve been set free.
