Weekly Reflection #3
Collage, Profound Experiences of People and Elgar’s Cello Concerto
Hello friends,
The reflection posts are a summary of my thinkings, conversations, and musing during past days and weeks.
Practicing Collage
It was more than six years ago that I started to write minimal stories on Twitter. Later, I called it Joe Stories. It’s conversations between two persons (one is Joe and the other has no name) about the meaning of life from a philosophical and psychological perspective. I wrote these stories when I was deeply sad. I remember those days and realize that loneliness and sadness can be the source of creation. Writing those stories, for me, was a way of understanding myself and practice of self-help.
Now, after more than six years, the stories are edited and are ready to publish (it’s in Persian and will be translated to English). To complete the book, it needs illustrations and I will do it myself. I have decided to do a digital collage.
Creating images with manipulating and mixing pictures helps you create a new kind of world and expand your imagination. This is the first one I have created:
What does this picture evoke in you? How do you describe it?
What if We Listen to Profound Experiences of People?
It was a thought week full of incidents. My resiliency and adaptation were under the test. I lost concentration and lots of energy. Between meetings on a busy day, a conversation started with a dear friend about our experiences in such hard times. She described how she has experienced and faced her challenges and how she is living with chronicle pains. I can understand her, and be emphatic. I can listen to her but I can’t experience what she is experiencing. We can understand each other but we can’t experience the living life of another. It’s the fundamental isolation, Ken Gergen describes in the book “Relational Being”.
We gaze into each other’s eyes with hopes of glimpsing the wellspring of action. I know that somewhere within you dwells the thoughts, hopes, dreams, feelings, and desires that center your life. Your words and deeds may give expression to these internal undulations, but imperfectly so. Yet, if what is most important about you lies somewhere inside you, then you shall remain forever unknown to me. 1
We suffer a lot in our society from loneliness. So much of our life is an attempt to not be lonely: “Let’s talk to each other; let’s do things together so we won’t be lonely.” And yet inevitably, we are really alone in these human forms. We can pretend;
we can entertain each other, but that’s about the best we can do. When it comes to the actual experience of life, we are very much alone; and to expect anyone else to take away our loneliness is asking too much.
—Ajahn Sumedho2
Our conversation leads to understanding how much we need to listen to the profound experiences of people in different situations and contexts. In such conversations, we can find life perspectives different than ours unfolding. We can understand how other sides of life, do look like. It gives us a deeper understanding of life and how we perceive it.
Sharing stories and listening to them does magic! It’s living another life.
Jacqueline du Pre & Daniel Barenboim - Elgar Cello Concerto
I invite you to spend your next 30 minutes watching this concerto.
Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85, concerto for cello and orchestra by English composer Sir Edward Elgar, was first performed in London in October of 1919. It is a sombre work, reflecting the sorrows faced by the composer’s native land in the closing months of World War I. (from 00:00:00 to 00:08:30)
The Cello Concerto has become a favorite with audiences, and it was a favorite of Elgar's, too. He recorded it twice: in 1919 and again in 1928. During his final illness in 1933, Elgar hummed the concerto's first theme to a friend and said, "If ever after I'm dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don't be alarmed. It's only me." 3
Consider this comment from a 79 years old lady under this recording on Youtube.
About Jacqueline du Pre
Jacqueline du Pre was one of the greatest cellists in the world. du Pre with Barenboim become the most successful couples in the history of classical music. Their performances are brilliant.
Finally,
I’m planning to start conversations with people engaging in change and transformation projects and publish them in this newsletter.
Have a great week ahead. I do appreciate share this newsletter with your friends. And please write me comments and feedback.
Gergen, Kenneth J. Relational Being, Beyond Self, and Community - chapter one
Gergen, Kenneth J. Relational Being, Beyond Self, and Community - chapter one
http://www.elgar.org/3cello-c.htm