Cosmic haze

"The negativity is ruining your sleep
It makes you wanna cry on your pillow."
The Futureheads.

Dilluted away

Space-shifting takes a lot of guts and forward thinking. Visualising new surroundings, preempting lurking dangers, calibrating possibles actions, testing various paths, etc. It is all part of the excitement. But with a lot of zooming in and out comes a very diffuse dizziness. What was I pursuing again? Where did I start from? When am I going to land? Which way am I facing as now? How do I make the jump to the next stage? Confusion is always round the corner.


And it does make sense that puzzlement should occur. The more we switch space, the less conscious we become of time passed. Both dimensions are tightly linked, but not in the way we often think. Racing against the clock might give us the impression that we have accomplished a lot in a short interval, when in reality we haven't really moved out of our shells. Similarly, as we roam about the world, we get the sense that we have transformed into a new being, yet we would have a hard time remembering what we were like before. When we stretch in one direction, we pull in in the other. Less memory when space-shifting, less change when time-traveling.

Stay put

Then, what about immobilism? Standing still, witnessing evolution in people and relationships, tracking updates in places and traditions, becoming an observer to other people's live, shouldn't it provide a stronger sense of self and integration as opposed to the graceful degradation surrounding us? Isn't looking out another way of peering in? After all, what we perceive and do in the outside world often is the result of what we think and feel in the depth of our minds.


But that would be forgetting one essential component of our lives: confusion. When there are no set truths and no universally established systems, nothing comes more naturally than doubt. There is no guarantee that what I see really is what is. There is no certainty that what I think is purely objective. There still is randomness, ambiguity, duality, exclusion, interpretation in and outside me. So I can never say for sure that my observations and conclusions are right/correct/accurate. I cannot vouch for sure that my thoughts are truly and exclusively mine. There always is doubt.

Blacking out

So, instead of applying force, triggering friction, asserting pressure, welcoming doubt might be a more productive operation. If I can't stand without sinking, it might be preferable to lay down and float. Sure, the currents and the streams will inevitably spin me around and make me lose my internal compass after a while, but with low resistance also come the benefits of a weakened impact. Just like a sponge seek to soak and absorb all the water in the oceans, I am willing to let life pass through me at all time and all space.