Poles Apart
…The ten-foot pole is more than metaphor
Geography
The plausible terrestrial origin of the phrase “poles apart” is the North and South Poles of the planet which are assumed to be the most mutually distant points on Earth. Not to be too technical, but we begin by exposing a misconception, a 56-kilometer misconception. That is how much fatter Earth is at its Equator than at the Poles.* I suppose those who think that is an important detail and those who do not are poles apart.
Yes, the metaphor serves to emphasize a stark contrast between people’s beliefs, ideas, or circumstances. There have always been such divides, but we may feel they are more prevalent now because our communication channels repeatedly remind us of them.
More than a grumbler’s niggle is the observation that the above image shows an Earth with the Americas (North, Central, and South) facing forward. This ubiquitous preference of view must mean that we think the other side of the sphere is backward and should remain out of sight and out of mind. Well, that ends here as we give equal representation to our Euro-Asian-African counterparts.
Vaulting Ambition
The metaphor “vaulting ambition” is derived from the phrase in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where “vaulting” is compared to a horse or rider attempting to leap over an obstacle but jumping too high and falling on the other side.[1] The same could be the fate of the pole vault, a track and field event where beginners often start with a ten-foot flexible pole that they plant firmly in the ground hoping for enough energy transfer from the flexed pole’s recoil to lift them up and over an elevated bar.
That’s exciting as a spectator, but I myself would not, could not touch that strenuous event with a ten-foot pole. Perhaps vaulting personal ambition is just as risky, for as they say, “the higher they fly, the harder they fall.”[2]
Keeping One’s Distance
You know we must examine “would not touch with a ten-foot pole” as a way to express a desire for distance from something or someone. That is a way to avoid unpleasant revelations or confirmation of expected difficulties. The metaphor clearly applies to the distance some quite prominent leaders want to maintain between themselves and the documents that impose limits on their behavior, such as statutes in the Congressional Record and articles in our Constitution that guarantee our freedoms.
The Magnetic Attraction
No, not the one we call chemistry between soon-to-be lovers. Rather than chemistry, we speak of the poles of physics, magnetic poles. They too are north and south, but not as proper nouns. The two opposing ends of a bar magnet are so named. These magnets can have quite strong magnetic fields that can attract magnetic materials like iron. We physicists like to draw a “field line” diagram with arrows to illustrate the direction of the magnetic field at any point around the magnet.
The Earth’s magnetic field is often similarly pictured with such lines. Our so-called magnetosphere protects us from the solar wind, from some cosmic rays, and it funnels the electrically charged particles from space that create beautiful auroras toward the Poles. The lines are, of course, imaginary just as are the longitude and latitude lines on a map – they are not really there on the planet nor in the air around the bar magnet or in the space around the Earth. Nevertheless, we can wish that the idea of such lines helps connect people who are poles apart on any topic.
Polls Apart
“Sounds like” may be a familiar phrase in a charades parlor game. Happily, a homophone of our “pole” is a “poll.” We are deluged with poll results of vastly varying reliability from all directions, especially around election time. We can believe a “polls apart” result when the difference between the candidates’ numbers is very many times larger than the margin of statistical error of the survey. Only then do we hear supporters unceremoniously gloat as an opponent’s prospects turn to dust.
But Seriously
As we have bellyached about in prior posts, distancing is a persistent problem with our relationships in many pursuits, most notably in political preferences, but also in a related phenomenon that we can call urban bias. Ignorance must be the underlying cause of such bias – an assumption that relies on how much city dwellers don’t appreciate and know about life and productivity away from their high-rise forest.
Are there wheat fields in the inner city? No. Do we have oil derricks in the inner city? No. From where comes our basic necessities for energy, for food, and even in some ways for health? From some non-metropolitan place, some rural locale that’s out of sight and out of mind. Why do city dwellers think so little of our rural fellow citizens? I don’t mean, they think they are lesser. I mean little in the context of not thinking of them hardly at all. Perhaps it’s time to wake up that recognition. Certainly the folks who live out there on the farms and in the small towns are aware of the big cities and aware of the way the big cities suck financial sustenance away from the rest of the country. But the opposite is not true. To most city-dwellers, all the sustenance just appears magically. They have never visited the “fly-over” country that produces those goods and those hardy people.
There is no magic formula for reversing this trend, but it has not been always thus. During past economic hard times, steps have been taken to support the price of commodities that originate in the fields. Corn for fuel as opposed to corn for food is a stressor. Unfortunately, the past several decades have seen political trends exacerbate the divide as the cities turn politically bluer and rural areas redder. Suburban rings around the cities are less well defined, let’s say schizophrenic purple.
We can understand why the fertile urban fields are rich with the potential for growth, innovation, and development. That is where creativity, entrepreneurship, and social change can flourish. A dense population, unique culture, and diverse residents may account for that. A milieu that’s poles apart from sparsely populated fertile farming fields, from the ranchers, from the miners of our minerals, and from the loggers in the forests where self-reliance and independence is nurtured. The yield of unfair stereotypes is as plentiful as the grain of the best harvest.
The interdependency between the currency on the left and the crop on the right is there for all who are willing to see.
A List of Excuses
Finding a topic that lights the match of disparagement is easy. A list of divisive, contentious, hot-button wedge issues is easy to construct. We can start with guns, immigration, abortion, climate change, LGBT rights, affirmative action, capital punishment, fracking, health insurance, race, nationality, language, ethnicity, and taxation. No doubt we can find opposing opinions on any topic we choose. For every Cassandra there is a Pollyanna waiting in the wings and vice versa. Whether countryside or cityside, optimists and pessimists populate both. Sparks need not fly when engaged in fact-based dialogue. Agreement on goals and how to reach them may never be achieved. The poles may never converge, but when the distant poles are seen clearly and understood, the imaginary field lines remain a constant path for accommodation as opposed to disparagement and condescension.
*Apologies to our lexicographic subscribers, but we feel it is quite unfair to capitalize the Poles as proper nouns without giving due deference to the Equator’s equally important but prior to today lower-case role.
Credits: “North-South Pole” from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snuf5O9B_4c.
“Backside of Earth,” “Ten Foot Pole,” “Polls Apart,” and “Broker and Farmer” by openai.com’s DALL-E image generator.
“Bar Magnet” from link to https://i.sstatic.net/6T0GJ.jpg on https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/659296/are-the-field-lines-on-a-bar-magnet-diagram-contour-lines.
“Pole Vault” (Robert Musgrave of Keswick (1841-1901), the first man to clear more than ten feet in the pole vault.) from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_vault.
[1] https://www.enotes.com/topics/macbeth/quotes/view/vaulting-ambition-which-oerleaps-itself-and-falls.
[2] https://www.chinausfocus.com/finance-economy/the-higher-they-fly-the-harder-they-fall.
Nota Bene: Others may ruminate differently. But be warned: In my case, seeing or hearing something quite trivial -- a saying, a store clerk’s mannerisms, or bad grammar on a food product’s label – triggers a stream-of-consciousness extrapolation toward grander notions and generalizations. That is what often happens in these posts. ADDENDUM: Those subscribers who have been here for a while know that Ruminations frequently veers into political diatribes. These posts are not simply snide remarks meant to pepper our text with controversy like an algorithm on social media. They are “ruminations,” and government behaviors are routinely top-of-mind for this author.
Disclaimer: Any and all opinions expressed here are my own at the time of writing with no expectation that they will hold beyond my next review of this article. Opinions are like a river, winding hither and yon, encountering obstacles and rapids, and suffering turbulent mixing of silts from its depths and detritus from its banks. But just as a river has its clear headwaters and a fertile delta, so do opinions, notwithstanding any intervening missteps and uncertainties.
Reminder: You can visit the Cycloid Fathom Technical Publishing website at cycloid-fathom.com and the gallery at cycloid-fathom.com/gallery.
Forthcoming posts (unless life intervenes)
Bumbling is Better
…Competence is overrated
24 Novenber 2025
