Often I praise ambiguity, uncertainty and liminal spaces. So far, I feel that the focus has shifted towards the unknown, which we need in order to learn how to navigate as it contains great potential for us to grow, touch the truth and feel connected. That’s all great, but perhaps I pay too little attention to the flip side of the coin. Today I will drift in concreteness. Perhaps the new stage in my love relationship with rationality is giving fruits already. It wants more concreteness from me. Alright, let’s do it. I do have a tendency to flow inside the world governed by abstraction. I love indirectness, metaphors, symbols and vague ideas that need to be interpreted, internalised and understood through individual perception.
I enjoy those realms as they ask for a personal active engagement from whoever is drifting. When I go into my dreamy, philosophising mode mostly people are inspired, energised and even infected by my confident navigation of that space. And I am confident when being abstract; I have broad knowledge that belongs to different realms of life, stretching from aesthetics to exact sciences. I am fearlessly juggling concepts and ideas, weaving beautiful ever-surprising carpets that feel free and unrestricted. I feel there is a lot of inhaling movement when I navigate abstraction. I love the freedom, the lack of firm ground, the lightness of movement and sparkling energies that come with it. The only thing I should do is to keep my curiosity alive and expand the reservoir of knowledge which I can elevate, shake a little and reconfigure in unexpected patterns.
The thing with abstraction though is that the journey within, is happening predominantly in personal experience. The process has contemplative nature, an act of looking at something for a long time, and strongly dependent on individual context and background. So it is a very lonely process. For me, but also for the other. We connect in the abstract realm that has no materiality or ground to walk together. Abstraction can be a sacred space where one can stay with herself in silence, connecting with the intangible dimension of reality. It can be highly profound experience, when used right, but it has limitations. You can’t stay there for too long as you lose connection with the ground where other humans are waiting for you to share what you found. That is where concreteness can come in handy. The points of connection materialised in forms, shapes and stories to build shared understanding and make sense out of the abstraction. Abstraction draws apart to grow and explore and concreteness pulls everything together to solidify. Both are parts of the same movement, like inhale and exhale, contraction and expansion.
When things become concrete they can build a ground to make common decisions and facilitate understanding. The chairs and a table are there to sit and talk. There are no things like that in the abstract realm; everyone has their own chair in their own mind. But having the capacity to see beyond the concreteness, while using it to share diverse manifestations that chair can have, makes a powerful alliance.
I noticed that I am naturally leaning towards the abstraction, due to various reasons. I name a few that seem important. I absolutely love drifting freely and challenging myself with new discoveries. And I absolutely love to give this experience to people. On a less positive side, my tendency to fall into the vagueness is pointing towards possible difficulties to have a real connection with the other. Coming down to the ground can be scary and uncomfortable. Suddenly, I feel constrained by language, materiality and even my body. I need feet to walk the ground and if they are tired I can’t walk anymore. And especially when I’ve been drifting for too long, once I am back, the connection with others isn’t going smoothly, so to say. I start feeling isolated and not accepted. If nothing is done about it, it can get quite bad and transform in aggression and anger.
Both are incredibly important and it is important to know what are our tendencies, are we drifters or a mountain? Knowing that, can help to keep an eye on ourselves, maintain the ability to shift between the two and become more of a shapeshifter navigating both worlds, expanding thinking while sharing the ideas on the ground with other fellows.