Escher-like Endless Loop

The sign of infinity, the endless loop. On an early TV show actor Sam Jaffe started each episode by drawing on a chalkboard, the symbols for male, female, birth, death, and last of all, infinity. But the first real applications of the mathematical reality of an endless loop that I recall were belts in an auto engine. Then next were those on a reel-to-reel tape machine. For those of us born in the ancient past when there were no personal computers, CDs and DVDs, you had a choice, reel- to-reel or 8-Track; and some of those systems used the endless loop.1

I actually remember the endless loop cassette tape recording I bought in 1995, the last cassette I ever bought. It was a demo tape of a Melbourne music group called Things of Stone and Wood, and featured the song, Why Do Nazis Grow Like Wildflowers? With an endless loop I could listen to it…. well… endlessly; provided of course that my wife wasn’t around. Eventually of course I wore the tape out. 2

Endless doesn’t really mean endless after all, it seems. At least not in the sense of infinite. In the physical realm it can mean seamless, joined end-to-end, or looping back to its own beginning. But, as an abstraction, and endless loop does signify infinity; to the degree that any construct can represent something incomprehensible.3

But an endless loop can have another application, to represent love in all its fullness. Two people make a wilful decision to be committed to each other; it is a reciprocal agreement. Each one is contributing, which drives additional contributions, which in turn continue to drive, expand and mature the relationship. Etc, etc. And even those who have had death intervene in those loving relationships have experienced that the love does not cease, but continues to continue. It may be intangible, but no less real.4

Another form of endless loop might better be called deje vu, or vision, or prophecy. This is where an event causes a chain reaction, that in a sense returns to the original point, creating additional consequences, which then create more consequences, which then… but I think you get the picture. I want to tell you about the endless loop that I have experienced.5

When I was 16 I spent the summer touring Western Europe. You know those kinds of tours; ‘If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium.’ You know - get on the bus, drive somewhere, get off, walk around taking photos of the Japanese tourists taking pictures of you; then back on the bus, stay overnight at a hotel, bus again in the morning, etc. [Run-on days need run-on sentences] Any way, one Saturday afternoon I was listening to a record owned by one of my roommates; ‘I’ll never find another you’, by the Seekers. It wasn’t on an endless loop, but I certainly played it as if it were. My roommates were out, so I wasn’t bothering anyone.6

It was a warm September day, and after listening for, well I don’t know how long, I took a nap. And in that nap I had a dream, and in that dream I met my future wife, literally. In this dream I was walking down a country road, crossed a small bridge over a stream, and saw a four-storey brick building on a rise ahead of me. The building was very Victorian in design. Leading from the front lawn was a massive wrought-iron circular staircase, rising from ground level to the second floor. And someone stood there.7

Yes, standing there on that balcony was a young woman dressed in what looked like a nurse’s uniform. She had brown hair and brown eyes. I walked up to her and asked where she was from and what her name was. She started to say “Aus….” When –8

When my roommates returned and woke me up. Having recently been in Austria, I assumed that she was about to say “Austrian”. I knew that was the woman I was going to marry, I just didn’t know when, or how, or where. So, I filed it away in the back of my mind.9

Many years later I applied to a graduate school, sight unseen. When I arrived on that unvisited campus, I had to cross a bridge over a small stream; and there in front of me was the building I had seen in my dream, semi-circular wrought-iron staircase and all. And who was the first woman I met? The assistant dietician, dressed in a white uniform. She was from Australia. Yep, brown hair [now white] and brown eyes.10

Oh, and where did I first meet her? On those stairs, of course.11

We have been married 33 years now. So, you see, I consider that an endless loop, because we live in Australia, and I still love to listen to The Seekers. [It is not, however, as one of you wags out there is about to say, and endless loop because we’re still married.] The endless loop is the reciprocal love we have for each other.12

Picture Prompt Link:13

http://www.mcescher.net/20.jpg.mht14

James Gagiikwe ©200815