Differentiating Between The Circumstances And The
Possibilities
Barnhouse Napa Brews, Napa, California, USA
October 1, 2024
"You and I possess within ourselves, at every moment of our lives,
under all circumstances,
the power to transform the quality of our lives."
...
"A realm of possibility is a realm in which various new possibilities
can occur. A realm of possibility is generated by a
linguistic construct.
That is, a realm of possibility is created (constructed) in language;
it exists only in language. However, once a new realm of possibility
is created, it allows one to explore various new possibilities that
then exist by virtue of that new realm of possibility."
I am indebted to my sister-in-law Lynne Platt and to David and Hilary
Kaplan who inspired this conversation.
Purposefully, this
written conversation
doesn't read like an essay per se. It's neither a
narrative nor a descriptive account of
anything. Rather it reads more like a brainstorm, a batting around of
ideas that
lead
us to an einsicht ie an "A-Ha!" experience,
by
discovering
a clear view of and differentiating between two distinctions frequently
deployed universally in
conversations for transformation,
yet which are not only deployed in
conversations for transformation:
"circumstances" and "possibilities". In the ordinary course of life,
there are lots of
already-assumed
meanings which we've glommed onto "circumstances", and onto
"possibilities" in particular. I would like to re-examine both of them
the way they're deployed in
conversations for transformation,
so as to dislodge our
already-assumed
meaning of "possibilities" in particular (with which there's actually
nothing wrong) just as an access to the extraordinary course of life.
From the
Cambridge International Dictionary, here's the
definition of "circumstances" (I have no quarrel with this definition:
it works both as a definition of "circumstances" in the ordinary course
of life as well as in the extraordinary course of life; it also
provides a foil for the extraordinary use of "possibilities"):
<quote>
Definition
circumstances
noun, plural
from the noun (singular)
circumstance
a fact or event that makes a situation the way it is; events that
change your life, over which you have no control
<unquote>
Also from the
Cambridge International Dictionary,
here's the definition of "possibilities" (I have no quarrel with this
definition in the ordinary course of life, and yet in the
extraordinary course of life, it doesn't speak to whatever
possibilities are really capable of, if you will ie it
doesn't speak to the possibility of possibility itself: it
speaks to possibilities that are already there, so that
"inventing possibilities" is then just a matter of choosing from what's
already there - in other words, from what's already deemed
possible - instead of bringing forth wholly new possibilities from
nothing, by declaring them as possibilities):
<quote>
Definition
possibilities
noun, plural
from the noun (singular)
possibility
a chance that something may happen to be true; something that you
can choose to do in a particular situation
<unquote>
The quarrel I have with this definition of "possibilities" is twofold.
In the first case, for possible possibilities (if you will) to "happen
to be true", they must already exist, whereas the extraordinary course
of life starts by making things possible ie
inventing them as possible, by speaking them into
existence. In the second case (following closely on the heels of my
first quarrel with this definition of "possibilities"), for possible
possibilities that you can "choose to do", they must already exist,
whereas the extraordinary course of life starts by making things /
inventing them as possible by speaking them into existence.
Definition
possibilities
noun, plural
from the noun (singular)
possibility
what's available in a new realm of possibility, a new realm of
possibility having been generated by a
linguistic act
(literally, spoken into existence)
<unquote>
Without our power to transform the quality of our lives / invent new
possibilities which
Werner
asserts you and I possess within ourselves at every moment of our lives
under all circumstances,
all that's available to us is to react to the circumstances and / or to
be constrained by them. Worse, without that power you and I possess
within ourselves at every moment of our lives, all that's available to
us is to react to and / or be constrained by whatever we perceive
the circumstances to be. In inventing new possibilities rather than
merely reacting to and / or being constrained by whatever we perceive
the circumstances to be, we're not only altering how circumstances
impact us: we're altering the nature of circumstances themselves,
making them not fixed / more malleable.
