Coherence as in of a team, of the universe, of laws of nature, of free actors interacting and a common system emerging ...

This is my first time participating in the TribeSteemUp Question of the Week, I've missed it a couple times and I just saw the opportunity on the Discord to share some thoughts on this week's question just this morning.

I'm grateful for this opportunity and am really looking forward to reading all of your thoughts. I've experienced many synchronisities lately and this seems to be the latest because I've actually been struggling with an issue of not knowing what face to pull back home after being away for a long time. Lots of nostalgia and old-feelings coming up, and so it's been really good for me to ask myself this question.

Sorry if the entry is a little bit late @trucklife-family, but a big thank you for bringing me into the group and helping me get me involved in this. I'm really personally looking forward to all the contributions on this. I feel this is a time of insight for all of us, and it's really quite timely and so pertinent for us all to converge on these questions of good living and how to practice it at a critical time like this for all of us.

Good Idea

What Does Coherence Mean To Me?

Coherence is a fancy Latin word that means "sticking together". This notion of sticking together has meant a lot to us over time, and still means quite a lot in this day and age. We find this kind of thought expressed in our motivational speeches, in pep talks with our best friends, in our marriages disputes, from art to political and philosophical movements... This notion denotes something that makes sense, something that holds us together, something that is whole.

It is related to the notion of consistency, continuity, and integrity; along with these coherence is a spontaneous attribute of life.

What seems striking to me however is that we often use the word to denote situations where its absence is obvious.

Incoherence

Incoherent things are interesting to us because they lack the fundamental proportion, symmetry, harmony and balance that we attribute to good things: things which are coherent. When something doesn't go along with other things, on any level of reality, it causes a strange and often unpleasant phenomena, from biochemical reactions in our brains to viscus ecological disasters resulting from the interaction of discordant elemental properties.

In the mind, we can speak of cognitive dissonance, which is the result of two separate and contradictory pieces of subtle information-containing stimuli coming together in a way where the incongruity can really challenge our minds' ability to discern fantasy from reality.

All kinds of situations arise where we get an idea about something stuck in our minds, and then we're surprised, or shocked even, that it turns out to be more complex, or less simple than before. Sometimes certain things don't stick. It can be anything from a personality, to a chemistry between people, to an individual to a specific environment. Incoherence can maybe best be understood as a state of lacking meaning, lacking purpose, lacking direction.
If something simply doesn't make sense for the current situation, if it really doesn't stick, then it probably isn't meant to be.

Incoherence in the human psyche is particularly interesting because it seems to be as if there are separate parts of the mind that when held together, they simply don't stick. It's like as if there were several personas or personalities residing in the head of one human being.

We often notice that our issues if we struggle with any, our issues with addiction or depression, social or financial, can so often stem from a profound incoherence within our selves... We like certain things, yet we don't do them. We dislike certain things, and still do them anyway because it sometimes seems easier that way. All the while trying to pretend like this makes sense, really trying to convince ourselves that we can really live a certain way that we feel very deeply isn't the best way for us.

Incoherence is so common, sometimes it simply feels like it is the way of the world. Sometimes, things really don't stick... But what can be done about it?

Coherence?

What about it?

Coherence may sometimes seem to be a significantly less felt or present force, I am however nevertheless less surprised by it than I am by it's negatively charged opposite. When I come across a religious person with an incredibly scientific mind, or come across a tremendously skilled and powerful, yet humble human being, I feel as if it is the way it should be.

When people are comfortable with whom they are, where they are going, what they're willing to do, what they're not, knowing what they have to offer and sharing it freely with the world in their own way, they naturally become a coherent part of the world and the Universe.

Nobody can begrudge somebody who lives well, contributes, shares, pulls his own weight and helps other carry theirs when they need a hand. There's nothing faulty with a person that takes good care of their health and mind and tries to be a positive force in other people's lives. When we talk a modest game, and our actions speak even louder than our words, we generally start exuding a sense of coherence.

Everything starts to work together, things start seeming possible, and life can start doing what it does best:

Growth and Evolution

I think progress is impossible if incoherence in our lifestyles prevents us from being efficient enough to get everything we want to do done. Living life as a spectator instead of an actor is miserable. It's wrought with so much unfulfilled expectations and unrealized potential.

Making sense of our own lives, giving them meaning, by deciding what it is that is important to us, and what we are going to do... Empowering ourselves to realize our dreams, in whatever form they may ultimately manifest. It doesn't come easy, it requires so much sacrifice, but ultimately, someone who plays their cards the right way will win. There are powerful forces, some call them Cosmic Laws, that suggest that forms that make sense and are well-endowed with intelligence and love can truly do incredible things. Nowhere in our immediate environment is this more incredible than with human ingenuity and the depth of sensations of the human experience. We're capable of incredible things...