During one of my small group discussions at Wheatstone 101, one of the mentors proposed a question:
What if you could live the rest of your life in a perfect dream? You know, the kind of dream that once you wake up from it, you wish so badly it was real. What if living in this had no negative effects on your soul and at the end of your life, not having the freaky realization of waking up, you would simply die and go to heaven? Would you pick the dream?
Many of us found this to be a complicated question to answer; after all, why not?
It brings us to the question of “what is the purpose for pain and discomfort?” If there were “no negative effects on your soul”, why not choose ease and pleasure?
A few of us chose the dream, but three of us rejected it and oddly enough, for three different reasons.
Reason one: the dreamer would be confined to experiencing only what they had experienced in their actual life up until the point where they entered the dream; meaning that if the dreamer had never been to Turkey, they couldn’t really experience going to Turkey in their dream because it would only be what they imagined of Turkey, it couldn’t possibly be Turkey itself since they had never been. The dream would provide no real discovery.
Reason two: no matter how it seems, the dream isn’t real. Reality is better, if for no other reason than that it is Real, and we ought to want what is better.
Reason three: I will go further into this reason, since this is the point of my blog:
The dream eliminates all possible otherness. In the dream there is no fellowship. If you reach for a person, you are touching yourself; if you laugh at their remark, you are indulging in your own humor. You can gain no new vision because you can suffer no defeat; like some madman who plays chess only with himself and expects to win.
Have you ever experienced the quiet discomfort of another person’s presence; that vivid otherness? Have you ever experienced the beauty in their unpredictability? The subtle and constant awareness, that they are not yielding to your preferences; they are not thinking your thoughts. They have a vision that is outside of you. If I were in my own dream, that discomfort, that overwhelming consolation that I am not alone, would be gone. The dreamer is confined to the hell of his own comfort.
Beyond this, there is another element: that of actually yielding to another. Not only would I never be surprised by something someone said to me because there is nothing in my world that is unknown, but likewise, I surprise no one else. Not only can I not experience the discomfort of another not yielding to me, but I can yield nothing to another. How can I give? Were I to attempt to simulate self sacrifice in order to give to another, I would be giving only to myself!
The more altruism, the more narcissism; the more generosity, the more greed.
What does it mean to love one “another” if there is no an-"other” and no love?
3 comments:
hey thanx so much for nickel creek!
i listen to a little of it,and what I heard I really like!!!
Dalynn - Glad to hear you like it!
I'm so sad, I just found out that they're "taking a break" - whatever that means! :'~( *sniffle*
Rachel – So good to hear from you! I’m glad you’re up for debate, but would you be willing to settle for a dialogue since I have no really solid stance to defend on this subject? I’d actually like to hear more of your thoughts on this, and from the acquaintance you and I have recently shared, you must also know that I have far more questions than I do actual answers. :~)
You said that “sometimes you have to go the hard way and live through the pain…but I have had so much of it to last me a lifetime”; I was kind of wondering what sets the quota for how much pain you “have to go through” and how much is enough to “last a lifetime”? Are you saying, then, that whether or not pain is “good” depends strictly on the amount of pain? Meaning that pain is good or necessary up to a certain point, but after that, it becomes bad or pointless?
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