They are as bound together as the poles of a magnet. They alternate as undercurrents that rise to the surface in philosophical, social, esthetic, and scientific fashions. Together they are the dynamic driving consciousness toward greater objectivity. To leave a nest is to find oneself nested in a larger world. The map can never be perfect or complete, and what it leaves out returns somehow to haunt its makers, gaining momentum until the tables are turned and the current reality is eclipsed by its own shadow.
History breathes through a dialectic of incompatibles, a dance of yin and yang.
Every value, thought, or gesture has a darker side, a shadow cast by its own positive but limited presence. These shadow truths must in turn have their moments up stage, must come forth as realities dominating attention. The shadow solidifies as the solid dissolves into shadow. The propositional nature of thought guarantees a complement to any assertion. There is always the other side of the coin.