The Dichotomous Nature of Air pt.1

This post should address recent comments about how I've both exalted and faulted air and hopefully explain my reasoning, logical and not.

Although technically composed of numerous elements (see definition 1), Air is a lesson in dichotomy. That's at least half the reason that I've chosen to personify it...the other half being that personification is a device used to get an audience to relate to an object, for if you cannot empathize you cannot realize (or some other such rhyming notion).

The other half, of course, being that it already possesses character traits similar to humans, i.e. dichotomy. In air, as in humanity, there is both evil and good, good and evil. Many people will argue that there is also a grey area, things cannot be simply black and white. There appears to be a murky area where evil bleeds into good or vice-versa, causing a major dilemma: the crisis of conscience. I will restrain myself from digressing further. The point is not what people think, but what we deem to be true; good and evil exist. The inbetween is debatable and grey, which makes it frustrating to talk about.

I'm not saying that Air is cognizant of its own doings (or that it's not). That would be immensely presumptuous, as well as preposterous (and other such '-ous'es). What I am saying is that we find it in both the good in our own lives as well as the bad; that it seems evil one moment and good the next. These characteristics of air can most easily be felt by going outside, although having a tempermental ceiling fan may cause a similar experience. A breeze can be relief on a hot summer's day or the first sign of an impending natural disaster. If something changes like the wind, it changes often and swiftly. That expression is also used to argue the weight of a changing or changed opinion as a symptom of a false character or poor moral fiber. But a steady opinion or a steady wind is not always good as it may be strong enough to lead off course and set you in the wrong direction.

More to the point (but not really), Air may be the breath of life, but it also carries disease, plague, and toxins.