Posts Tagged: inflection point

 “Inflection Points and the Curvature of the Soul”

On November 3, 2022 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I got an email the other day that used a phrase that I have often heard, but I didn’t really understand what it meant: “inflection point”. I had a very general idea of what it was, but I had never really drilled down into its precise meaning. When I drilled, I hit two very different (though related) veins of meaning.

Here is a little something I picked up from Professor Google:

“in·flec·tion point

noun

  1. 1.

MATHEMATICS

a point of a curve at which a change in the direction of curvature occurs.

  • 2.

US

(in business) a time of significant change in a situation; a turning point.” (https://www.google.com/search?q=inflection+point&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS844US844&oq=in&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i57j69i59j69i60l4.3629j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8, accessed 11-03-2022)

Now, I don’t understand mathematics, geometry, and calculus even a little bit, but this is an intriguing thought. The point at which a curve changes its direction—hummmm.

Most of us live fairly curvy lives. We mean to walk the straight and narrow, but life throws us curves. Perhaps we need to consider which way the curves are going, and which way we need to go. We do have choices, and we need to make good ones.

In a sense, every moment of every day we have to decide which way we need to be curving. This is not only true when we are in crisis. It is true all the time. All the time, we are deciding which way to move.

St. Augustine of Hippo says in one of his works that sin is the soul curving back on itself. When every decision asks only “What is in this for me?” the inflection point becomes a point along a terrifying constriction of the soul. And as long as we/I continue to turn the same direction, we get smaller and smaller. To put it less philosophically, as that famous non-philosopher Anonymous has said, “A person wrapped up in him or herself makes a very small package.”

I have a good friend who, whenever I call him in my distress, says, “How can I be of service?” Now that is a question that helps me. I have a hunch that he himself is also helped to curve in a better direction by asking the question and acting on my response.

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