Aleph-null has always represented something more to me than just the set of ordinals. It's the smallest of the infinities. The least of the infinite. It is infinite, but it could be more; it has room to grow.

For me this is like people. Each contains the infinite, whether it is viewed as potential, the god-head, the fuzzy logic idea that the whole is contained within the part, the spirit, the soul, or even the self-destructive determinism of the atheist with its power to decide among infinite possibilities of states of being that one must be true and finite.

But if the individual is infinite or contains it, why bother growing? Because we are but the least of the infinites until we add to ourselves. We can be more, and finite additions can develop patterns that imply infinite continuity, and so possibly increase our ordinality. Individuals can combine to grow together and so find greater ordinalities through mutual growth and support. This implies that by sharing and participating in relationships, in communities, that we not only contribute to the growth of others, but to ourselves, as well. And then the expression "get Real" has a whole new meaning (if you don't get this, go back and read the mini-text on infinity--Real numbers have a greater ordinality and are represented as aleph-one)

The flip side is that we truly are only limited by the boundaries placed upon us by ourselves and those whose influence we chose to accept. This may or may not sound terribly obvious, but I think it's a point most people miss--we choose how much of our infinity to recognize. We are continually influenced by those around us, by patterns of behavior, expectations of others and ourselves, by who we were yesterday, and last week, and ten years ago. We can choose whether to accept those influences or not. Some choose to ignore or circumvent many of these influence; many of these are societal criminals. The more successful are artists, writers, poets, and other people with both the vision to see in ways others fail to, and the ability to convey what it is they see in a way that is comprehensible to those who are more limited in their interpretations of their experience.

Divergent or nonlinear thinkers.

Visual artists see things--angles, colors, shapes--the way they "really are" instead of the way most others interpret them (okay, it's all abstract interpretation of data, but they interpret from a more basic interpretation set). They must see beyond what they have learned about interpreting vision while growing up, and learn that seeing and interpreting are two individual stages that most people never separate. Similar differences between perception and interpretation can be found in the other senses, and I believe in thinking. Most people are rather trapped in their normal modes of interpretation and evaluation. I attempt to see things from other perspectives. I try to associate seemingly disparate concepts and elements and see that they are not so different after all. Or maybe they are, but we'd never really know if we didn't try and see.