On Meeting

On Meeting

To those who struggle to find the light in any given day. Life can be crazy, but you don't have to be crazy in it. There are people who love you enough to help you, but be patient with them. The free organizations are usually overloaded. Find solace while you wait, and make the most of when you're there. Sooner or later, you'll get to pick where "there" is, and it won't be where you're at. I promise. Trust in the design. If you need someone now: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, any hour, free and confidential · SAMHSA National Helpline — 1-800-662-HELP (4357) · NAMI HelpLine — 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) · dial 211 for local services.

I

Over the last several days, friends from my past have reached out to me seeking advice, on various things. Partly due to my various philosophies they've read, partly due to my sudden altered presence on social media, and a select few are curious about my plunge into depth psychology and the analytics of Jung's work.

I claim no proof of anything with this reality, other than dissolution of ego draws people to the I. The explanatory gap is almost magnetizing, when someone stands in it and speaks.

I continue to remain sober, make changes to my life to increase my mental and physical health, and pursue avenues that create coherence within my personal framework — my family, and my job.

I want you to hold how many times in history a brain has been called crazy, and understand that I have been psychologically cleared of any type of derailment by professionals. I intend on using what I've learned in life to help others. The reasons why are irrelevant; the outcome will very likely change a life or two, if it already hasn't. A collegiate education does not barricade me from being a father, a husband, a family member, or a friend.

But what drew me to meet people?

I imagine it's the same forces that draw quarks together to form reality. Or the other force that draws jays together to form coherence. There is much history about the opposing forces, but one thing I hold dear to my heart through all my work, and I'll state it clearly before I proceed:

Light dictates everything that we see, mortality dictates everything that we feel.[1]

II

I don't know what to make of that, and I'm not sure I ever will. But before my diagnosis of health is overruled by readers of my subconscious creations, I must continue.

What draws any thing to something else? In On Magnetizing we talked about how iron doesn't draw itself to other pieces of iron unless it has been altered by an observer.[2] The iron was always magnetized; it was just misaligned until it was shown how to be aligned.

But what draws people to other people?

The mirror, I would imagine.

I know I have many readers who know me personally, people who have followed and shaped my growth over the past forty-two years. Family, friends, loved ones. These people weren't "drawn to me"; their existence in my life was circumstantial. But I can't argue the depth at which their involvement in my growth has taken root.[3]

History once said it takes a village; you can only imagine for a brain like mine, it took a small army. I was nothing short of a wild child who knew everything better than everyone else. Not because I experienced it, learned it, was ready to teach it, but because my mind had collapsed on that reality, and I couldn't be told otherwise.

An unadulterated mind.

Children are the future. If we can show them a world without evil, they will grow up to a world without evil. But it's going to take far more than a village — or an army.

III

Let's zoom back in for a moment.

I was just eating what was left of my wife's pudding. One vanilla cup, one chocolate cup, each half eaten. I didn't want to bother with dealing with them separately, so I allowed them to "meet" in the same pudding cup.

One swirl of the spoon and I was awash with more inspiration for duality explanations, and sat down to write this piece about how even though the flavors were different in design, when mixed together they still taste really good.

There's a synesthesia joke in there somewhere.

Let's zoom out a little bit.

I don't know what to make of my recent revelations, but I can assert this much. I aim to be published at some level, but pursuit of knowledge is my goal, not accumulation of wealth. It is by this logic I have avoided predatory publishing practices, and patiently wait.

I don't know what I'm waiting for.

I said earlier how my reader base is primarily my own, but I've organized my work in such a way that it can be seen by many.

So this is my draw.

IV

If you want to meet me, please don't hesitate to reach out.[4] I have no qualms about what you have to say; as a matter of fact I would love for you to materialize in my life so we can talk about why I may or may not be right, or wrong.

If you want to meet me and ask about my cat, I have a whole book I can talk about that hasn't hit the world yet.

I absolutely love people. Nothing you bring to my table will be something I'm above eating. The pursuit of knowledge is lifelong, but the pursuit of happiness seems to be fueled by a source greater than life.

A light in the dark, a reason to wait.

I don't know where my path goes from here, because I've come to the end of inputting thirty years of independent research.

Actually, I do know. Why would I falsify that? I know what's going to happen. I'm going to meet people who think like me, or don't think like me. From them, I'm going to learn, and grow, and continue to work towards being a better, kinder, and more understanding person when it comes to other people's viewpoints.

By this logic, my existence within the framework I've described is the only peer review I'll ever need.[5] But that's simply my philosophy about existing within my own explanatory gap. The reality is, the future is unwritten.

So if I speak to you in a way you can't explain, write me. Let's continue this expansion of knowledge together. Let us become — coherent. Whether or not you agree with me, I'm going to agree with you.

Win-win.

This is my call to you, the unknown reader. Let's talk about — anything you want. I have a little bit of knowledge about a few things, if you can't tell by my work.

I'll just have to bring most of it with me, because I have a bad memory.

Notes

1. Accuracy note: an earlier draft of this essay claimed that no prior instance of this formulation was known. That is a negative, and negatives of this kind cannot be established — a phrase may exist offline, in translation, or in a source no search reaches. The honest form of the claim is the weaker one: I am not aware of a prior instance, and looking did not turn one up. I make no stronger claim than that.

2. The magnet does not acquire magnetism from outside; the domains were always there, and aligning them is what magnetizing is. See On Magnetizing.

3. On meeting as the constitutive relation rather than the meeting of two finished parties, see Buber — the I of I–You is not the I of I–It, and neither term precedes the relation. Levinas presses further: the face of the other arrives as a claim before it arrives as a fact.

4. Correspondence reaches the author through legibletraces.com.

5. Register note: stated as philosophy and not as a standard. Peer review exists to catch the errors a single mind cannot see in itself, and a framework cannot supply that service to its own author. The sentence describes a disposition toward the work, not a substitute for anyone checking it.

References

Buber, M. (1970). I and thou (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). Charles Scribner's Sons. (Original work published 1923)

Honneth, A. (1995). The struggle for recognition: The moral grammar of social conflicts (J. Anderson, Trans.). MIT Press. (Original work published 1992)

Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority (A. Lingis, Trans.). Duquesne University Press. (Original work published 1961)

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