Affinity

• like attracts like
• difference draws us near from afar and repels us as we get close
• difference draws us out to diffuse and balance the world

The guiding principle of Universe is affinity. (Here I invoke "Universe" without the article a la R. Buckminster Fuller as all we are and all we can come to know.) Affinity (and its force of attraction) fuels Evolution and Emergence, the two interweaving processes that develop Life as we know it and the Cosmos we witness. The drawing together of entities, often like or complementary but sometimes opposed or even conflicting, takes on different forms at different scales: [gravity] between celestial bodies, [Love] between mating mammals, [magnetism] between charged cells, a strong force holding electrons in orbit.

But every yang has its yin. And so Enmity interpenetrates Affinity, repelling entities before they are too close to be distinguished from one another.