JUXTAPOSITION (n.)

: the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side, often to compare or contrast, or to create an interesting effect

also : the state of being so placed

Motivation

As human beings, I believe our interior experiences must be very similar to each other. What does it feel like to love your wife or mom or cat? What does it feel like to crave pasta or steak or tofu for dinner? What does it feel like to be lonely? What does it feel like to be ashamed of yourself?

I know. You know. We all know.

We know these feelings well enough to talk to each other about them, even though we have no way of confirming that anyone else’s interior experience is the same as ours. That seems like fucking magic to me, and yet it’s our lived reality! If these big feelings are so similar between individual humans, might we also have similar small feelings? Subtle feelings?

On my particular life path I have had to learn to listen to my small, subtle feelings. I have also found it helpful to write about them. I have kept journals my whole life, and they have given me a way of interacting with my past self to learn about my current self in comparison. By comparing and learning and listening and writing, I understand myself better. The better I understand myself, the more control I have over my life.

What if other people also have subtle feelings that, if noticed, could empower them to change? And what if those subtle feelings are ubiquitous, like I suspect? And what if I could describe my own subtle feelings with enough specificity that others would recognize something in themselves?

Might that help more people seize control of their own lives?

Is that too ambitious a goal for a newsletter?

Starting Suggestions

If you are looking for a place to start, try one of these:

• Temperance & the Tempest wherein I am a problem.

• Mind-Body Problems wherein I experience a dichotomy.