Saintsbury, Los Carneros Appellation,
Napa Valley,
California, USA
January 27, 2020
There's a place I love to be. It's a
perfect
place. I don't want to be anywhere else. It's this place.
This one. It's here (or
"out-here",
if you prefer - ie it's everywhere).
Notice I'm careful not to say "There's a place I love to be
in" nor "There's a place in which I love to
be.". The
perfect
place about which I speak, isn't a geographical place. It's not a
specific area or location. It's not a country or a town or even a
village or an
art gallery
or a
beach
or a coffee shop. The
perfect
place about which I speak, is an experiential place. It's
a place from which to be, from which everything is
perfect.
It's an experience from which to be, from which everything is
perfect.
Wait: firstly, "from which everything is
perfect"
not "in which everything is
perfect"?
Yes, it's not a typo. I don't mean it's a place in which everything is
perfect.
I do mean it's a place from which everything is
perfect.
That's the profound distinction for an experiential place
(from which) rather than a geographical place
(in which). And there's a certain experiential place ie a
place to come from, which is a place from which everything is
perfect
exactly the way it is, and exactly the way it isn't.
And secondly: that, by the way, teases out what it is for something to
be
perfect.
Something is
perfect
when it's exactly the way it is, and isn't exactly the way it isn't.
Look: you and I are already exactly the way we are, and we
already aren't exactly the way we aren't. We're
perfect.
No kidding! This is what it is to be
perfect.
To be
perfect
isn't to be nice or
kind
or good or right or even virtuous, all of which are great evaluative
judgements. Yes they're valuable. But they're just evaluative
judgements. And to be
perfect
is to be the way you are, and to not be the way you aren't. And you're
already that way. You're
perfect,
get it?
(stop
lying about it).
There's a baseline experience each of us has, of what it is to be
human, of what it's like to be human, of what it's like to
be a human being having the experience of being a human being. It's OK
for me to be human (something which wasn't always OK with me). "Oh? But
Laurence"
you say, "you have no vote in the matter. Your personal
preferences in this area don't count. It's a done deal.
You have no choice but to be human.". True. We're human.
But where we do have choice, is with our own experience of being human
ie of what being human is like for us. We can
resist
being human (never did much good). We can compensate for
being human so it's more bearable (an ongoing endeavor which, once
started, has no end). We can avoid being human (or try to)
so that its point-blankgravitas
isn't so dominating.
There is however another possibility, a possibility which calls for a
shift, a
contextual
shift
(if you will). It's a possibility that's realized through language and
language alone, a possibility which once invoked in language, allows
being human and the experience of being human, to be
perfect.
This possibility becomes available to me as soon as I
stop
languaging that there's
something to fix,
something to change, compensate for, or make better. And here when I
say "languaging", I'm saying it like "generating" / "causing", not like
merely "talking about". It's a possibility that becomes available to me
as soon as I language this as the
perfect
place ie as soon as I
stop
languaging there's any place better (it's an experiential place not a
geographical place, remember) - or
trying to fix it,
change it, or compensate for it. This place is a place to be,
a place to stand,
a place to fully experience that being human is OK. It's not a place
like a neighborhood, a city, a state, or a country, and it's not
somewhere else. It's a place that's right here (remember it's a place
that's right from here) which means I can experience it
anywhere ... which means it's everywhere.
This is the
perfect
place. I don't want to be anywhere else. Really.