People needing people
This is a page from the third version of Technopagan Yearnings. There are some formatting differences. Originally published at www.neowayland.com/C550866538/E20081223135301
Accept or not as you choose, that doesn't make it less true
Here's another from my beliefs.
Humanity is a colony organism. We'll tackle the simpler part of the assumption in this post. People need people.
I've talked before about how the orgone threads of the wyrd are shaped by thought and driven by passion. It's no place more evident than how we interact with other people. We open ourselves to those we care for and trust even as we act to draw them closer.
And for those we dislike, we wrap ourselves in our thoughts and emotions to keep them at bay when we deal with them.
It doesn't matter to the universe how we feel about other people. Often it doesn't even matter to the other people. But it does matter to us, and it governs our actions. Shaped by thought and driven by passion. It's the intensity of the emotion that's fueling the reaction, not if it's a "positive" or "negative" emotion.
We need other people to challenge our assumptions, to make us check our landmarks and maps, to knock the bad props out from under our ideas.
Shaped by thought and driven by passion.
One problem is that if we hate someone too much, we bind ourselves to their actions even as we limit our own. Enemies aren't all that healthy. Respected rivals can be.
It's not enough to hate someone, all that does is use our own energy to confine ourselves. To draw ourselves out we have to give up the hate. We have to find something we admire in them even as we disagree with their opinions. I can be really guilty about not following my own advice here.
Shaped by thought and driven by passion.
The people we care for, we let them get close enough to take a close look at our ideas. They're the ones who can poke and prod and kick. If they really love us, that is exactly what they will do.
Because there are going to be times when it's just you and your ideas all alone. That's when you hope that both you and your thoughts are strong enough to survive.
Shaped by thought and driven by passion.
If your ideas can't stand friendly examination, they won't be able to withstand rivalry by your respected opponents. And there is no way that you'll be able to hold out against a hostile attack.
Shaped by thought and driven by passion.
That's only one side of the dice though. Even friendship and love can be inverted into unhealthy obsession. The wyrd will still bind you as long as your emotion flows.
A healthy person touches others and accepts the wyrd winding deep inside themselves. It's the give and take that makes you reach beyond your expectations. It's the give and take that exercises our ability to think. It's the give and take that challenges our identity.
It's the give and take with others your trust and respect that makes you grow.
That's when you get out of the box.
SHAPED by THOUGHT and DRIVEN by PASSION.
That's why we need them. Our friends, our loves, our honorable rivals, even our enemies. Our interaction makes us stronger, raises our passions ever higher, and forges our ideas into the strongest support possible.
Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it's joyous. Sometimes it sends us crashing into the ground so we have to begin again.
But without the lives we touch and the lives that touch us, each of us would be diminished to nearly nothing. We have to have it, it makes us what we are.
Even semi-hermits like me who sometimes might like to deny that they need anyone else.
We're social, it's our nature.
Shaped by thought, driven by passion, reaching out. None of it matters unless we are touched by another.
Posted: Tue - December 23, 2008 at 01:53 PM
