Contact.

I live in a city of ten million people.  Inevitably, contact occurs.  Shoulders brush.  One hand grips another.  Sounds stream through the air to collide with an eardrum.  Florescent signs cast garish light on ancient temples.  Rain drops stream down one cheek only to meet the foot of another.  East meets West.  Random collisions are mingled with deliberate touch. 

It is the latter that I miss.  When touch becomes a mere byproduct arising from the completion of daily activities, it loses meaning.  Touch becomes a sterile thing, devoid of intimacy.  Human connections fizzle and die before their potential is realized.  Existence becomes insular.  This has been my hardest challenge. 

 

Huxley captured this phenomenon more accurately than I can ever hope to.  He wrote:

We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves.  The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single  self-transcendence; in vain.  By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude.  Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and,except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable.  We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves.  From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.  

I do not desire to be an island any longer.

Let your S(e)oul Shine

Disclaimer:  this post is a rather incoherent, rambling reflection of my current thoughts.

I once watched a film which was based on a simple principle: the universe is a conductor of acoustical energy.  As such, music flows through every aspect of life.  Places, moments and memories all have a particular rhythm that is created spontaneously, or stumbled upon by curious minds.  The latter describes my induction into Seoul culture; I have simply fallen into its rhythm and am held, rapt, by its seductive beat. 

Seoul is alive.  The city vibrates with energy and never seems to sleep.  My experiences and memories here are more vivid and raw.  It's as if someone peeled off a layer of my skin, exposing my nerves to a jingle-jangle of currents and sensations heretofore unknown.  Perhaps this newfound hyper-awareness will fade with the novelty of this place.  Perhaps not.  For now I am reveling in each electric moment. And as I revel in, and explore my new surroundings, I also explore myself.  In time, the architecture of my soul will change to reflect what I learn here.  I hope it will be a beautiful transformation.