Your planet has a population of 1

Here's my most recent Strange Up Salem column, which I've been writing regularly since last May for my town's alternative newspaper, Salem Weekly. It has a churchless vibe. My first column is here.

Your planet has a population of 1

Be yourself. And let the world be itself.

Eight words. Which do a damn good job of summing up my lifetime of philosophizing, spiritual seeking, pondering the Meaning of It All. 

The strangest thing is you, me, every individual. Inside the human cranium is an utterly private realm, unknown to anyone but the consciousness that experiences it from the inside.  

Enclosed in our subjectivity, we try to communicate what it is like to be us. Words, gestures, emotions, music, poetry, art. There are so many ways people try to build a bridge between the inner and outer worlds.

All fall incomplete. The bridge always has gaps. It is impossible for anyone else to truly know what you’re experiencing.

Often we hear “This is really hard to put into words” and “You aren’t getting what I mean.” There was a bestselling book called Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Actually, the planetary geography is even more diverse.

Each of us inhabits a unique planet of personal experience with a population of one. 

This is marvelously strange. I revel in the knowledge that no sentient being in the universe has ever looked upon existence in the way that I do. Or, as you do.

Yet here we are, so often tentative, unsure, wary of wholeheartedly embracing our precious existential peculiarity. 

We look to others for confirmation that what we think or feel is OK. We are afraid of appearing different. We blend into cultural norms like a chameleon who automatically takes on the appearance of its surroundings.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with conformity if this is what we really want. I’m just urging us toward a more confident acceptance of the One-Of-A-Kind that each of us is.

There is no alternative to the oft-heard advice, “be yourself.” 

It isn’t possible for you to be anyone other than who you are at every moment. So why the reluctance to express yourself openly, honestly, forthrightly? Remember: your experience of life is yours alone.

However, what you sense also is sensed by others. There is a world outside your skin which isn’t you. It belongs to all. Such is the marvel of objectivity, the complementary yin to the yang of subjectivity.

Like artists, we all have a unique vision that springs from our private consciousness. Like scientists, we all have a shared knowledge derived from efforts to understand public reality. Wisdom lies in keeping these talents properly aligned.

Often people get things backward. 

They wrongly take aspects of their personal inner world to be objectively real for everyone (such is the mistake of religious fundamentalists). They deny scientific truths like evolution and global warming.

In line with the slogan “you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts,” this is my Core Creed of Strangeness: 

Glory in your uniqueness while marveling at the world’s commonality. From our own personal planets, we gaze upon a single universe. E pluribus unum: out of many, one.

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Strange Up Salem seeks to lift our city’s Blah Curse. Give us a Facebook like. Brian Hines blogs at hinesblog.com

Comments

[777]

"E pluribus unum"
that's pure advaita !

Here they say : "In God we trust"
dualism

77

[Turan]

Brian wrote :- "They wrongly take aspects of their personal inner world to be objectively real for everyone (such is the mistake of religious fundamentalists). They deny scientific truths like evolution and global warming."

It took me quite a time to realize that people did not share my 'inner world.' Knowing this helps enormously when communicating with others - even with those who deny aspects of the objective world.

[cc]

It isn't possible for you to be anyone other than who you are at every moment. So why the reluctance to express yourself openly, honestly, forthrightly?

Really? I should just blurt out what comes immediately to mind? Never weigh my words or consider the consequences? Disregard the effect I'll have on others? Okay, whatever you say.

[cc]

It took me quite a time to realize that people did not share my 'inner world.' Knowing this helps enormously when communicating with others - even with those who deny aspects of the objective world.

Turan, I may be mistaking you for someone else, but are you not a global-warming denier?

[Avi]

Remember: your experience of life is yours alone.

..... Yes absolutely and that's why Brian's statement:

Glory in your uniqueness while marveling at the world’s commonality.

....... makes complete sense.

.... But, it does not necessarily follow that:

It isn’t possible for you to be anyone other than who you are at every moment.

....... IMO, it's very much possible and that's what most of us do most of the time whether we are at home, office, or a religious place etc. In fact, our behavior is highly governed by the "role" we are playing at a particular place and time. We behave according to the situation at hand and don't (or don't have the courage to) just speak our mind. Moreover, everyone also "justifies" different behaviors at different places by taking the cover of following the "norms". In truth, however, it's the "fear" of consequences that stops us from being our own self.

Social psychology is full of theories to explain such behaviors by human beings.

So why the reluctance to express yourself openly, honestly, forthrightly?

........ In fact, the very few who do have the courage to express themselves "openly, honestly, forthrightly" end up, more often than not, being "unacceptable" to the society, rather than being among the "rich / successful / famous". The only satisfaction they can have is the "self-satisfaction" in spite of not being "successful" (in the sense the word successful is understood by a majority in the society), and there, simply, are not many people who would like to be in that category.

[Chris]

Great post Brian, nice and simple for me.

I was always told not to judge my insides with the outsides of others. I've learned that my insides sometimes spring forth awesome experiences that I can't translate to others, but try and think sometimes we have this mutual connection and that is just awe-inspiring! Of course this is just a guess, theory, but I believe it does happen, a simultaneous connection of some kind. It doesn't happen very often for me, though.

[cc]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/12/creativity_is_rejected_teachers_and_bosses_don_t_value_out_of_the_box_thinking.html

[Avi]

Thanks, cc, for the link. I really enjoyed reading the article.

[Turan]

To cc. Global warming denier, not guilty. What makes you think that?

[cc]

To cc. Global warming denier, not guilty. What makes you think that?

Mistook you for someone else...sorry.