“Air-Fuel ratio” is the mass ratio of air to a solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel present in combustion. This can take place in an internal combustion engine or industrial furnace, or may be outside a chamber which the result is an explosion-a dust explosion, gas or vapour explosion or in a thermobaric weapon.
The air-fuel ratio determines whether a mixture is combustible at all, how much energy is released, and how much-unwanted pollutants are produced in the reaction. Typically a range of fuel to air ratios exists, outside of which ignition won’t occur at all. These explosion parameters.
Back in the good ole days I drove and rode vehicles that were carbureted rather than having fuel injection. If you don’t know and/or as a reminder a carburetor is a device on a motor that mixes air and fuel at very specific ratios to put into a valve before spark and ignition so that we have a good quality boom in the motor.
There are several factors needed for this symphony of explosions to happen and to make the vehicle perform well and go fast! I like fast! Environmental things like air temperature, the elevation that the vehicle operates at, and the size of the chamber we want to put the boom into are all factored in.
Too much fuel (called being too fat or too rich) means that the spark and combustion process may not use up all the fuel and that screws up the spark plugs, causes the vehicle to run sluggish, and just plain not perform well.
Too little fuel mixed with the air (called running lean) is when there’s not enough fuel for the spark which causes the boom in the chamber to not fully push open the valves and turn the crank so the vehicle backfires or will lurch when you pour the coals to it. Again, poor performance, maybe the engine stalls easily, or you’re just having poor fuel economy. (Fuel being soul dollars in this analogy)
So ask yourself, how far away from the optimal mixture can you get and still keep things moving down the road?
My opinion is that life is about the dance blending mixtures like this, it’s about getting things done and having a good time. It is about knowing and not knowing. I have definitely lived my life trying to have it all figured out and when I didn’t I would lie to myself and others and say I did. Life is better when I allow myself to not have it all figured out.
Discipline to “achieve” accomplishments is a good quality to possess. Accomplishing things is important whether they come from ego or not. And as I’ve gotten a little wiser what I see is that what motivates me is coming from multiple places, pure and impure.
As I blabber on, this is/or can be really fulfilling as us humans seek to create optimal levels of certainty in life. I want to feel confident that I can impact my reality the way I want and create what i’m after. I really like flipping a light switch and the lights coming on, crazy huh?
Uncertainty is a wild animal and the antithesis of certainty. It’s the ocean, it’s the weather. Uncertainty has all those fun things woven inside of it like novelty, surprises, and spontaneity. Uncertainty is inarguably the spice of life, that is… unless you’re already dealing with an overabundance of uncertainty and then things get out of whack and just feel chaotic.
So here’s the deal, we need both. Depending on a person’s individual make up is how the best create a mixture of these to feel appropriately balanced in experiencing safety and experiencing variety. If you’re at a higher elevation there’s less oxygen in the air so you need to adjust the carburetor appropriately. What does that mean to you?
For the sake of organizing these thoughts, who we are is based off what we’ve experienced and that then dictates how much certainty and uncertainty are being sought out to feel in harmony and feel good.
What I’m posing here is that these are based off of an unconscious and old drive to right what may have been wrong before and to also to try to be safe and often safe to the point of crippled by it. Or… on the other hand things being so out of control that mostly we just experience chaos which helps us to be overwhelmed and distracted from what might come up in our discipline and certainty.
With all that being said, where does your air/fuel mixture need some adjustment to feel the full spectrum of life. When you roll into it do you feel the responsiveness of the power in your engine or does it lag, spit, and sputter.
I like going fast-riding wheelies, coming out of the hole like a bat out of hell, and holding on for dear life. For that to happen my shit has to be tuned up. I also know that I don’t want to do that all the time.
The opportunity:
You decide, do you need more uncertainty or certainty in life right now?
Why do you default or gravitate on the scale of uncertainty and certainty like you do?
How does your propensity to land on that scale negatively impact people in your life?
Thanks for your time, have a great day!