I heard drums on my way to dinner at the Heineken Hoek and was immediately drawn to them. It felt like human natural instinct to move towards the beats. When I found the epicenter of the sound waves, I saw that many others had the same natural instinct. The beats spoke to all of us, arousing differing degrees of physical motion. But, as I gazed at the faces of most gathered around the drummer's circle, I saw that one thing was consistent amongst everyone, and it was definitely not race, culture, age, nationality, shape, size, gender, past experience, style. This one thing was a smile. If the mouth wasn't upturned in this position, the eyes glimmered with what was deeply felt by everyone's soul. And that was a mutually awakened, universal smile. I saw others notice this as well and it brought tears to my eyes. It is amazing what art, music, and the beauty in life can do to humankind-- cross all barriers and bring us together as one.
I felt this at the museum I went to today: the Van Gogh Museum. There was a long, dense line outside the modest exterior of the building, full of people speaking una ensalada de idiomas, but we all understood one common language, which brought us all to the same location. That common language is universal beauty. As I got pushed around and my bubble was "invaded", I forced myself to instead of take offense, stand back and love the fact that we were all so eager to experience what the art does to that inexplicable part of us-- that part that drives this mutual understanding of peace and appreciation for beauty.
It is my opinion that we will never fully understand what is beneath the mutual feeling, but that thought actually comforts me. I am okay with the limitations of human understanding. Although I love science, I also realize the limitations of it and I try as little as possible to apply much weight to human understanding/intelligence/knowledge.
I really feel that our race continuously views humans as "superior" to other species, even as we continuously work towards the demise of our own species. The human race has hardly even scratched the surface of evolutionary history. Consider the dragonfly, which just simply happens to be something I have researched because I find it to be one of the most beautiful and symbolic creatures-- they have been around since before the time of dinosaurs. Can we really, honestly claim, that we are superior to these beautiful beings? Not that I believe that we are inferior. No. I am simply saying, "why claim any stance on superiority?" Just because we can kill them doesn't mean we are "better" or "smarter" or "more advanced". If you look at the long term picture, although they can't defend themselves in the very moment that a human squashes them, they have defended their species for millenia. How do we know that the dragonfly's intelligence is so limited? Just because we cannot see it, feel it, or understand it, are we really qualified to take a stance or have an opinion on this issue?
------------Here is where I took a break to drink some Heineken and realized that I hadn't looked up from my Moleskine notebook for about 20 minutes, wrote a personal note and continued at the next stop: an Indonesian restaurant (there are many Indonesians in Holland due to the Dutch colony there)--------
Ok, after further review, I have decided that the things I continued to write in my Moleskine may be a little too intense for now. One key excerpt: "Nevertheless, this is a beautiful journey I am on. I appreciate every moment: hard/easy, happy/sad, lonely/social, work/play, sleeping/awake....
Someone asked me as I was writing in my Hemmingway Moleskine what I was writing about. After I explained to him my fascination with universal appreciation of beauty, we somehow managed to arrive at the topic of geneology. Coincidence? I am having a hard time figuring out why we got to that subject and its relation to mutual understanding. I think I will have to sleep on it.
I ate an incredible Indonesian meal tonight across from the Argentinian steakhouse where I ate last night.
Amsterdam is fabulous. From what I have experienced, Dutch people are the most friendly people in the world, next to maybe the Thai. They are super tall and I am convinced that everyone carries at least one sandwich in their pocket. I am also convinced that these two parameters are not independent of one another.
Tomorrow I fly to Geneva and rent a car to drive from Geneva to Grenoble, France. I am terrified to drive in Europe, but at least I will be on the same side of the road. Tuesday morning I fly to India. I will spend 1.5 months there. At least.
Cheers.
0 comments:
Post a Comment