Thank you for reading it :) I hope not too clunky, there was so much I wanted to say and do with this but equally had to avoid getting carried away for readers' sake :)
We live in an ocean of time, where events, things, and people are continually succeeding one another, but we cannot live with such boundless complexity, because we disappear in it, and therefore we organize it into categories, sequences, hierarchies. We organize ourselves - I am not nameless, my name is such and such, my parents were like this and that, I went to school in such and such a place, I experienced this and that, by character I am like this and like that, and that has caused me to choose this and that. And we organize our surroundings we don't just live on a plain with some grass, bushes, roads, and houses, we live in a particular place in a particular country with a particular culture, and we belong to a particular stratum within that culture.
All of us sum up our lives in this way, that is what we call identity; and we sum up the world we inhabit in similar ways, that is what is called culture. What we are saying about ourselves fits, but no more than if we had said something entirely different, thought something entirely different about ourselves and our place in the world—if, for example, we had lived during the Middle Ages and not in the early twenty-first century—and it too would have fit and seemed meaningful.
That identity and our understanding of the world at one and the same time fit yet are arbitrary is, I think, the reason why art and literature exist. Art and literature constitute a continual negotiation with reality, they represent an exchange between identity and culture and the material, physical, and endlessly complex world they arise from. - Karl Ove Knausgaard, Inadvertent
This is amazing, thank you. I love it how the older I get, and the more I am exposed to, the more there is to learn - it's like an expansion of life, as opposed to running out of time. Moments like this! 🙏🏼🌿🎄
Another beauty! I’m sorry that I arrived late. I love listening to voices speaking in another language knowing what’s being said without knowing what’s being said. And pure relaxation really does reside only in transit
Thank you, as ever, for your encouraging support, it means a lot. I keep drifting from here (recently also because of work, but mainly because I'm still not sure my writing is suitable for this platform). And then feedback like yours arrives and I feel I can keep going a little longer!
Always a pleasure reading your thoughts! If what you’re writing is not suitable for this platform I don’t know what is, I haven’t checked Substack for a week and today I saw you’d written and it was the first thing I opened ;) happy new year to you too 🤗
Not quite a travel blog, neither merely an art-appreciation piece, your gem of an essay traverses the entire gamut of human experiences - from our engagement in our & others’ cultures, our awe & feeling of fun in being part of polyglot spaces to our sense of porous self; of permeable self. Where we allow ourselves to move between “having experiences” to acknowledging & glorying in “experience is happening”.
Thank you Estella, for this share of your truly luminous journey. 💜
Thank you for reading it :) I hope not too clunky, there was so much I wanted to say and do with this but equally had to avoid getting carried away for readers' sake :)
We live in an ocean of time, where events, things, and people are continually succeeding one another, but we cannot live with such boundless complexity, because we disappear in it, and therefore we organize it into categories, sequences, hierarchies. We organize ourselves - I am not nameless, my name is such and such, my parents were like this and that, I went to school in such and such a place, I experienced this and that, by character I am like this and like that, and that has caused me to choose this and that. And we organize our surroundings we don't just live on a plain with some grass, bushes, roads, and houses, we live in a particular place in a particular country with a particular culture, and we belong to a particular stratum within that culture.
All of us sum up our lives in this way, that is what we call identity; and we sum up the world we inhabit in similar ways, that is what is called culture. What we are saying about ourselves fits, but no more than if we had said something entirely different, thought something entirely different about ourselves and our place in the world—if, for example, we had lived during the Middle Ages and not in the early twenty-first century—and it too would have fit and seemed meaningful.
That identity and our understanding of the world at one and the same time fit yet are arbitrary is, I think, the reason why art and literature exist. Art and literature constitute a continual negotiation with reality, they represent an exchange between identity and culture and the material, physical, and endlessly complex world they arise from. - Karl Ove Knausgaard, Inadvertent
This is amazing, thank you. I love it how the older I get, and the more I am exposed to, the more there is to learn - it's like an expansion of life, as opposed to running out of time. Moments like this! 🙏🏼🌿🎄
Totally!
With pleasure, I am present at your writing, happy new year, may it always be the best.
Happy New Year to you too. May it be a good one, peaceful, wholesome, healthy 🐾🐿️☘️
Another beauty! I’m sorry that I arrived late. I love listening to voices speaking in another language knowing what’s being said without knowing what’s being said. And pure relaxation really does reside only in transit
Thank you, as ever, for your encouraging support, it means a lot. I keep drifting from here (recently also because of work, but mainly because I'm still not sure my writing is suitable for this platform). And then feedback like yours arrives and I feel I can keep going a little longer!
I hope you are well - Happy New Year! 🌿🎄🎉
Always a pleasure reading your thoughts! If what you’re writing is not suitable for this platform I don’t know what is, I haven’t checked Substack for a week and today I saw you’d written and it was the first thing I opened ;) happy new year to you too 🤗
You are too kind! 🌏🌿🦋
Beautiful! I love the way you entwine the themes of light, and time, and place, and belonging. You open doors in my mind. Thank you.
These are beautiful words, they mean a lot to me - thank you, and also thank you for your time reading
🌿.
A wonderful piece. Thank you.
Not quite a travel blog, neither merely an art-appreciation piece, your gem of an essay traverses the entire gamut of human experiences - from our engagement in our & others’ cultures, our awe & feeling of fun in being part of polyglot spaces to our sense of porous self; of permeable self. Where we allow ourselves to move between “having experiences” to acknowledging & glorying in “experience is happening”.
Thank you Estella, for this share of your truly luminous journey. 💜