Emily came by about fortyfive minutes after Tom and Allen had left. We had pretty deep conversation kept light by our general buoyancy; a bit of a heart to heart with some zen reflection. Emily says, “every action comes from some place good” while discussing the need to be present with this sentiment. She has been reading The Power of Now, which she is really enjoying. When discussing the recent transformations at Recycle a Bike she admitted to being “so lucky” that she has the right people who she already loves being around who also happen to be interested in community bike shops. The effect of that community has been enormous in re-centering Recycle a Bike as a functional organization.
We shifted back to a more gushy emotional space; the likes of which happened a lot in the window, but which I have, up until now, omitted in order to preserve a sense of comfort and optimism about the window. Emily says, it seems like people in Providence “are dating their art”, and therefore lack the concern for partnership. I asked her if I could quote her there. I thought it was a particularly astute observation.
By the time Adam showed up (coincidentally just coming through the square) and asked us what we were talking about, I deadpan replied “softness.” He thought I meant artistically, which is perhaps also true, and I said, “no, I mean me. Sometimes I think I come across as really stern, and I wish I came across as more soft.” Adam, sweet boy that he is said he thought I was a good balance of the two sentiments: stern and soft.
We started talking about our different understanding of shared space and the concept of intrusion. All three of us figured we were concerned about accidentally intruding on personal space. Adam started drawing Ven diagrams of interpersonal relationships on the air, and that jumped us over to talking about Raëlian beliefs about the earth aligning with a “home planet” close enough that our supposed ancestors were able to “jump” from one planet to the other. Adam says they are waiting for a time when the planets realign so we can hop back.
Somehow this got me thinking about Gnosticism – more pictorially than theoretically – since the way the belief is structured is based on a map of circles in my mind. To the best of my understanding: there is heaven in a circle in the center, and in heaven there are thirteen gods. One of those gods is Sophia, the goddess of wisdom. She, out of boredom, creates Lucifer and Lucifer creates the earth. Because of the succession in relations (lower and lower on a chain) anything earthbound cannot be perfect, though its goal in life is to become the perfect representation of itself in heaven. This is probably a very crude and trite understand, but I’ve always thought it a nice idea.
Going back to the Raëlians, Adam says, “punk is like an ameba and a cult is like a cinder block” bringing it all back to the impression of softness. Nice one. Thanks for coming!
