Perhaps beyond my selfish sense of identity, I can see myself as part of my community, or perhaps, of our community. The community of global citizens. The community of people that believe that what bring us together are overwhelmingly beyond anything that take us apart. There are times that I do get a sense of "non belonging". Perhaps those times come from our primordial instinctual tendencies for departing. Departing from our everyday' realities and seek something that is equally unknown and dearest, esoteric and exoteric.
Many times, over and over again, I question my own perceptions of community. Is it a static concept? Is it an objective concept, or a subjective one? Does a "community" really exist, or is a creation of our minds? My Greek background promptly tends to warn me: don't fool yourself! Think like Aristotle: if a community exist in our minds, then it is reality. Nothing around us exist if it does not exist primarily in our brain. We don't know what we don't know!
Well, if this is true, then doesn't that mean that we might be living in a universe of numerous parallel subjective realities, often overlapping within the same physical or virtual space? Doesn't that mean that the degree to which our perceptions of community interface to each other depends on our ability to share and communicate our experiences, our visions and our interests?
Mind over matter, you might claim. I agree. In deed. Despite my plenty extra weight! And, energy over mind, I might add. Not any energy, but the one that makes our world change. The one that keeps our brains running. The one that makes our eyes glow. The one that empowers our actions. The one that fills us with despair when we cannot achieve our goals. You may want to call it spiritual, inspirational, visionary. But, for me, it is not just a mental construct or conditioning state of mind. It is also an esoteric response to our world, and to our own visions of the future. I get the same feeling of energy when I think of a new exciting idea, when I stand in the top of a tall mountain, when I stare at the sea imagining my alter ego standing on the other side of the ocean, when I reach to touch the clouds in the sky, or when I close my eyes in thinking meditation.
I have a small wooden carving sitting in front of me in my desk. I think is made in Africa from black African ebony. The sculptor carved a strange spiral complex of human figures, connected to each other, embracing each other, reaching higher and higher heights. Each human figure face is arranged to look at a different direction, so that no matter how you turn the carving, you will end up facing one of the carved wooden human figures. It is in deed a fascinating piece of art, and I find it truly inspirational. I like to think that we often are like that. We face on different directions in life. We take different paths. We never see each other in our lives, unless our realities overlap. Yet, we are connected into a single carving. We carry each other in our journeys in life. And not just the present. We are connected also to our many pasts and futures.
And together we march. Arbitrarily. Perhaps heuristically. Between harmony and disharmony. In symphony and in a-symphony. And between order and chaos....
I am turning the page for tonight....
Greetings, Kostas.
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