I am indebted to Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public
Leadership
students who inspired this conversation.
You ask me a straight forward question, a simple enough question. You
ask me "Where are you?". Without hesitating, I answer "I'm here" - to
which my
already always
listening
silently adds "obviously ... duh!".
"Very good" you say.
Then you ask my friend the same straight forward question, the same
simple question "And where are you?". Also without hesitating,
my friend answers "I'm here.".
"Very good" you say.
Then you ask me a another straight forward question, another simple
question. You ask me "Where is he?", pointing at my friend.
Without hesitating, I answer "He's there", looking at him.
"Very good" you say.
Then you ask my friend the same straight forward question, the same
simple question. You ask him "Where's Laurence?", pointing at me.
Without hesitating, my friend answers "He's there", looking at me.
"Very good" you say.
Then after a pause, you say something which astounds me with its
profundity, which shocks me awake with its simplicity. You say "So the
consensus of what you both say is: you're bothhere
... AND ... you're boththere, right?".
A silence like a velvet curtain suddenly descends and hangs thick in
which I find myself struggling to make meaning of his masterfully
crafted
paradox.
Nobody is saying anything.
Then you ask me another straight forward question, another simple
enough question. You ask me "When you say your friend is there,
where does thereshow up
for you?".
I get a
slippery,
disconcerting feeling. It's as if the carpet's slowly sliding out from
under my feet. I gamely say (and it sounds lame even to myself)
"Thereshows up
for me here", pointing to my head (to my eyes, to my brain
actually).
"Very good" you say.
Then you ask my friend the same straight forward question, the same
simple question. You ask him "When you say Laurence is there,
where does thereshow up
for you?". My friend says something similar to what I say. He says
"Thereshows up
for me here", pointing to his head (to his eyes, to his brain,
actually).
"Very good" you say.
Then you say to both of us "When you say thereshows up for you
here", pointing to your head (to your eyes, to your brain,
actually), "I say that's not where thereshows up
for you. If you say thereshows up
for you here" you continue, pointing to your head (to your
eyes, to your brain, actually), "I say that's a concept. I say
that's not where there shows up for you in your
experience. What I want you to do is to point to where
thereshows up
for you in your experience.".
We both hesitate briefly. Then after a moment, my friend points at me
here, and I point at him there.
A-Ha! and Eureka! It seems for both of us,
there doesn't
show uphere, after all. For both of us, when we look at where
thereshows upas an experience and not as a concept, thereshows upthere.
In a flash, I've gotten that my here and my
there are really the same, and my friend has also gotten
that his here and his there are really the
same. But it's more than that, actually. In the same flash, I've just
gotten that my here and my friend's here are
really the same, and my friend has also gotten that his
here and my here are really the same.
But it's still more than that, actually. In the same flash, both my
friend and I have just gotten that there doesn't
show uphere in our heads ie in our eyes, in our brains. Rather,
we've both just gotten that thereshows upthere. Really!
It's gone silent again. The velvet curtain has descended again. My
friend and I aren't saying anything again. But this time, neither of us
are struggling. This time we're both profoundly moved.