She loves me, she loves me not. Or, in this case, I love me, I love me not and I love you, I love you not.
Pulling petals off a flower in an attempt to answer such big questions may have been fine for me as a child, but once I became an adult I needed something more nuanced. I wanted to learn the fine art of seeing clearly with double vision—peering inside my own skin while simultaneously stepping outside of my experience and looking around.
Compassion was needed. Penetrating vision was required. Looking back. Looking inside. Looking around.
I couldn’t avoid the past, my culture’s or mine, no matter how far I tried to run form it. When I stopped, I discovered that it was not only possible to own where I’d been personally and where we’d been as culture and then go somewhere new—it was also essential.
This exploration of seeing near and seeing far away at the same time is the subject of my second YouTube posted on my website. What has been your experience with “double vision”?