If I had never met you,
I would have still known you-
But only in passing
For the distinction made between the likes of us
Is that of rarity for close interaction.
If I had never met you, we would have been acquaintances and nothing more. The casual hand wave and head nod of two strangers is all the regard I would have felt for you, for acquaintances is fitting in our situation. We find- in such an economy of class and structure- that we do not match and, therefore, we do not find the time to express ourselves in the attentions of one another. Rather, we fall into our separate spheres that intersect only in the expected interaction that society dictates to those who are not, and can never be, together. The simple passing in a crowd of people, the colloquial greetings absently given and absently taken, and the occasional meeting of eyes would be the closest breaches upon the accepted and time-ridden codes of society that we would attempt. And as these attempts would fail to produce any relationship between us, we would both venture further into the isolated cells of those akin to our like where our interactions would become fewer and fewer to the point where they would, eventually, vanish. We would be apart and perhaps, as it can be argued, rightfully so.
I would not miss you and I would not mind, nor would you. A momentary flicker of your face or defining features might occasionally unfold itself upon the threshold of my mind, but there would be no meaning- no value- to the thought and I would discard it. I would have known nothing about you and, consequently, no importance would be placed in your memory. In the absence of knowledge, curiosity is limited by fact and fact is limited by experience so I would not seek you. And as we both would pursue our respective paths in life and perform the essential actions and movements necessary for these paths, we would forget all about each other- except for, perhaps, a flicker of a
moment or a misplaced image that would surface on our minds then float away slowly like a misguided ship. It is sad to say but I would have had no effect on your life and you
would have had no effect on mine. Apart we would eventually complete the destined paths of our lives and nothing would be amiss- nothing different- than if we had met. We would have stayed without our bounds provided by the societal recommendations established, of course, for our good and wellbeing because of our contrasting views on life.
However, we did meet.
Upon this harsh medium of pen on paper, I write to you- though I do not wish to talk about myself. Differences are wrought, quite uneasily, between us because of the simple divergence in our lives’ experiences, actions, and events. But simply because of these differences, shall I stay in the corners of my fathers- in the rooms of my likeness? Or should I believe in the decisions of my character- in the image of my actions- and connect to you? Is it better to grasp forward and interact with those quite unlike yourself or remain inside a realm of relative similarity? Is it right value you as a person- but not truly know you? Or is better, wiser, to love, but to love with hate, a mirror image of myself such that I can see all the faults and flaws more clearly than the beauty which, in essence, are not foreign to me? Perhaps, the answer lies better in your hands than my own for I am biased by the idea that ignorance is not favorable when knowledge is available. Perhaps my idealism lies in the centerfold that difference can, and does, truly make a difference.
In the fragile expanse of these ten minutes I have been writing and under the easy preoccupation of talking to you even though I am not beside you, I have realized that we are not alone. The canals wrought between us, even on the simplest of levels, are not ones made for division; rather, they hold inside their waters the richness of diversity. We may find that our paths- that our dreams- that our passions- are different, but these differences make us who we are and, with conviction and morality, we each may pursue the life in
which we find most fulfilling to not only ourselves, but others as well. Our differences melt away at the wake of something better- something purer- something larger. We, as a collective body, embrace the idea of a common cause- a life worth living, a dream worth
dreaming, a gift worth giving. We believe, and we believe together. We believe in truth- whether that means idealism or practicality. We believe in emotion- whether that means morality or consciousness. We believe in life.
There is an oscillation between everything we see- everything we do- everything we are. And this oscillation, in time, tends towards balance and only in balance can there be truth. There is a need for lies to appreciate truth, disdain to comprehend love, sacrifice to obtain experience, wisdom to truly be intelligent, and shadow to make light. In this need, we obtain our differences- no balance is prefect, no scale is precisely the same- but it is the mix of it all- the happiness, the sadness, the good, the bad, the dreams, the paths- that makes us united- that makes us whole. You are me, stripped of my personal relationships and memories, and I am you, deficient of your specific thoughts and actions. There are some that still wade in the extremes, but when they find their balance and learn to swim, they become us. We are all together- even though in simple passing, it doesn’t seem as so. And although I haven’t known you truly, I would like to for this is life, and there is no more eloquent or meaningful a statement other than- we are alive, and we are together.
There is a balance-
Through by the ambiance of experience
That defines life.
And by the understanding of morality,
We have gained union and emotion
In which a movement is set in motion-
Away from the folds of uniformity
And toward the light of multiplicity.
Chatboard (2)