There is a very clever Swedenborg and Life episode about divisiveness. You know, that sharp cleaver that slices between people who ostensibly value each other. That is in itself a trick question in that the word cleave appears in many wedding ceremonies, as a pledge to stick together. Yet the word sneakily also harbors the meaning to cut apart. A trickster if ever I saw one. 

Janus is the god for whom such double words are named, because of his two faces. He rules over doorways, beginnings, and endings. Contranym is another label for these opposites within a single expression."Overlook" indicates the effort to supervise, and also to ignore. "Ravel" describes the effort to intertwine threads, or to separate them. "Buckle" is the act of clamping two parts firmly, or else what happens when something cracks under pressure."Weather" can refer to the gradual erosion of the landscape, or conversely the integrity of a structure that resists breaking down. "Left" means something is gone. Or else what is still here.

The part of the video that is forever embedded on my mind's eye is where one person is greeting his friends as if he cares about them. But the inner reality is that they only matter to the degree that they reflect his needs. That's when their faces all swivel to become copies of him. Which is what he wanted all along.  This is the consequence of selfishness, and is the root of divisiveness. 

When we choose an open doorway rather than one that is slammed shut, we are able to be cohesive instead of split. It offers the chance to pay attention rather than to ignore. It gifts us with the chance to be knit, not splayed. It clasps us as one, instead of rending us under pressure. It allows our relationships to endure the forces that blast them. It offers the hope that affection will still remain even after our differences have tried their best to pull us apart. Then it will be the animosity that has vanished. 

It turns out that the end of divisiveness makes a lovely new beginning.