Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In One Page Per Day
Day 140, Sunday
May 20th, 2018
Chapter Seven: Other Self
As we become self-aware we also become “other-aware.” We struggle with the
full array of human emotions. We feel the flood of neuro-chemicals, and learn
the mechanae to regulate them. The most significant among them being fear.
Fear lodged deep within the limbic system, in the far reaches of the “reptilian”
brain, in the spine, and the neural network flowing out from it into our
extremities.
We come into the knowledge of self, fearing any and all others, seeing
them first as danger, as threat, every other person we encounter, accept the
mother who gave birth to us, who is our anchor to our memory of the womb.
Every person has a different learning curve, a unique capacity for the
things of their experience they remember, recall and contextualize.
The acquisition of language gives us a taxonomy, the linguistic tools to
understand these differentiations: self, mother, father self, brother, sister,
self…it is a code that grows and continues to grow.
It is open ended: self, uncle, aunt, self, cousin, self, offspring,
self, niece, nephew, self, spouse, self, friend, self…
It is through kinship, by relating to those whom we believe share our deepest
interests that we learn to see strangers as other-selves, even an adversary can
take on the aspect of another self.
There are language games, there is neuro-linguistic programming in every
culture that can force these issues. They combine word and action, feelings and
mystery, through rituals of shame, fear, and empowerment, which can break down
barriers, and move a person rapidly through every stage of acceptance in regard
to another. Religion, and ritual, military service and shared suffering among
them.
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