Antithesis (an-tith’-e-sis): Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not always, in parallel structure).
I look up and you look down. I look down and you look up.
In our antithetical gazes do we contradict each other or do we compliment each other? And what’s between us? What’s between your up and my down, my up and your down?
What’s between us is us.
There is no other place for us to be: we are created between the oppositions and may recognize and work out our juxtaposed differences there–where, perhaps, up and down set the limits of our individual and unique identities, and in the in-between-space, the differences are a platform that we jump from into the fields of us–we lose me and you. We take mutual responsibility for what we do in between the opposites, what we make here is us.
Blame evaporates in our shared space, where together we constitute our quality of life on the foundation of us: not you, not me, but US.
Who is to blame? We are to blame.
Who should be praised? We should be praised.
Who should be pitied? Maybe you and me, but not us!
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Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
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