2. The Two Kens

We can better understand the fifteenth-century mind by delineating two different perspectives, here called "kens." The plain ken sees the world as a mess of particular things and human actions. This mess occur in an everyday spacetime, subject to certain rules: Every event can be located precisely with three spatial coordinates and a time stamp. There is no deep meaning beyond what we happen to project onto events. The plain ken sees in a coincidence merely a coincidence, random and accidental. In contrast, the deep ken allows for all these things the plain ken denies. There is subtle, deep, real meaning—and meaningful connections—beyond the accidental constructions by humans and the chance encounters of normal spacetime. There are subtle and powerful meaning, necessities, and connections, found especially in beauty and proportions.