DAY 030 – DESIGNING DANGEROUSLY

Catharsis

I have been in Muncie for four years. Longer than I lived in Salt Lake City, longer than I lived in Cincinnati. I recently marvelled at the fact of this, since I hold up both of those experiences as liminal, huge periods of change for me. Which leads to the question, what the hell has changed in me in four years in Muncie?

I’ll save that reflection for some other time (or never). The point is that rose-colored glasses or otherwise, we contextualize our past experiences. We make sense of what we’ve been through afterward. In the moment, when things are difficult or great it’s not the time for distance, for a more objective viewpoint. It’s time to be close, all in, subjective. To be present in the moment is the great gift we can give ourselves and those we value. 

We make sense of what we’ve been through afterward. We can’t see it in the moment, when things are tough, but afterward. We mold sense out of the clay of memory, shaping it into something we can comprehend and recognize. We make sense. We are sense-making creatures. We write our own ends. We of course have the rough material, but the meaning we imbue it with is where the real power is, where life is.