Post by Jonathan Morey Weiss-Namaste47 on Jan 1, 2009 23:41:14 GMT -5
How can it be that we live each others' lives?
I always thought that each of us was an individual isle
surrounded by a barrier sea;
others denied access to our sandy beaches
as we build castles of impenetrability, protected
by moats of exclusion.
Isn't this the premise? We enter the world alone
with a scream...an infant of intense proclamation:
"I have arrived. I want warmth, attention, sustenance."
Our basic needs are met, but as we grow,
our developing desires are more often not.
Gradually, we learn that we cannot always get what we want.
Others are incapable of giving it to us
and we cannot usually satisfy ourselves, because
we don't really know what we want.
So we continue..circling, searching, ultimately returning
to square one, perhaps to embark on a different tack-
maybe by giving to others we can become more
complete and integrate our circuits.
We reach out, extend ourselves, and feel we are doing
something that increases our self-worth;but we are
still alone, still that island in the midst of other islands.
We ask ourselves who or what will be able to end this exile;
to take each Napoleon off his Elba.
It is then that we build a lifeboat--a bridge to
explore each other's islands.
As we slowly begin our new joining
we realize that other islands are not all that
different from our own.
As time passes we become interconnected interfaces
and realize that Donne was right...as the islands connect
and become larger land masses, a homogeneity arises..
and soon the islands that have existed have taken
a different form.....a mass consciousness substituted
for that of the individual.
I always thought that each of us was an individual isle
surrounded by a barrier sea;
others denied access to our sandy beaches
as we build castles of impenetrability, protected
by moats of exclusion.
Isn't this the premise? We enter the world alone
with a scream...an infant of intense proclamation:
"I have arrived. I want warmth, attention, sustenance."
Our basic needs are met, but as we grow,
our developing desires are more often not.
Gradually, we learn that we cannot always get what we want.
Others are incapable of giving it to us
and we cannot usually satisfy ourselves, because
we don't really know what we want.
So we continue..circling, searching, ultimately returning
to square one, perhaps to embark on a different tack-
maybe by giving to others we can become more
complete and integrate our circuits.
We reach out, extend ourselves, and feel we are doing
something that increases our self-worth;but we are
still alone, still that island in the midst of other islands.
We ask ourselves who or what will be able to end this exile;
to take each Napoleon off his Elba.
It is then that we build a lifeboat--a bridge to
explore each other's islands.
As we slowly begin our new joining
we realize that other islands are not all that
different from our own.
As time passes we become interconnected interfaces
and realize that Donne was right...as the islands connect
and become larger land masses, a homogeneity arises..
and soon the islands that have existed have taken
a different form.....a mass consciousness substituted
for that of the individual.
