Neighbors

How destructive and distorted is oppositional logic? For instance, the notion that good and bad are opposites. In the essay "The Human-Not-Quite-Human"-- part of a book entitled Are Women Human?-- Dorothy Sayers asks why male and female are opposites: "The first thing that strikes the careless observer is that men are unlike women. They are 'the opposite sex'--(though why 'opposite' I do not know. What is the 'neighboring sex'?) But the fundamental thing is that women are more like men than anything else in the world." I'm less concerned with gender and sex and more interested in strengths and weaknesses. I've lately encountered the notion that our personal weaknesses are often very close to our personal strengths. My attention to detail (strength) often leads me to work slowly, impractically (weakness). My enthusiasm for teaching (strength) regularly drains the energy I should devote to my own work (weakness). Tom Jones' assumption that all people are, at heart, good (strength) leaves him open to the machinations and manipulation of the dishonest and selfish (weakness). These strengths and weaknesses strike me not as opposites but as "neighboring" or adjacent. I know it's old hat: yin and yang, opposites attract... but I'm somehow shaken by this and know not how to proceed-- how to march gracefully forward...