Member-only story
Tangled String Theory
Sorry, this is not science
It started with a cardboard sword with a handle encased in string. When the sword fell apart I had a few feet of string that wasn’t really worth saving so I was left with a tangled blob. The other day I needed some string so it made sense to untangle this blob until I could cut off the length of string I needed. Yet, for some reason I hadn’t the heart to destroy this stringy cloud, leaving it with four ends, and dug out another ball of the stuff but not before I’d started untangling the mess of twine. I found it quite satisfying and somewhat relaxing so proceeded to finish the job though I had no particular need to.
Trapped hoops
As the untangling began, it struck me that the entanglement was all about trapped hoops, hoops within other hoops and it was these that I targeted, where I could release one from another in one movement. These hoops were maintaining the entanglement without being knotted. I managed to unravel a good length but eventually had to resort to finding an end and pulling it through. It seemed to me that releasing the hoops was, in effect, reversing the process by which the string got tangled up and this was cathartic. Working with ends and hoops throughout the process was the only sensible way of achieving my objective.
