2017.10.24: Context and me
Dear Journal,
Context or environment, can be summarized as the state of the world that surrounds us in a given moment. Whether the context is a man honking a horn in the middle of an intersection or somber fall leaves rustling across the driveway in a rural neighborhood. This is what I mean by context.
Me, can be summarized as the internal state that we carry from moment to moment. (Moment, in this context, means a single interaction between the environment and us.) When I say me, I mean anyone or anything. From a human to a rock, we all have an internal state. However, the rock's state might be less interesting. I think the reader would be surprised at how complicated it could be though. The rock has mass, volume, position, and is comprised of many interacting particles that seem to lock together to form the mass that the rock is. Humans aren't much more than that. We just have a few more particles whirling around that animate our actions in a seemingly more complicated way.
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, we can summarize every moment we've ever had, every feeling we've ever felt as some arbitrary interaction between context and ourselves.
That person we met last week and couldn't stop thinking about. That was a chaotic set of moments that led the two people together. I'm going to digress and give us an exercise that I've been doing for several years now. Especially when I'm feeling existentially insignificant. Imagine two people sitting on a bench in a park, perhaps the same two people that met and can't stop thinking about each other. Now, imagine the camera zooms out to look at the two benches parked to either side of the two people. Now, imagine the camera zooms out to look at the park. Then ask, how many people have we captured in our lens? Imagine seeing the tops of the trees and some leaves scattered across the ground, and dogs running together, and a food truck off to the side. Now, zoom out further, maybe we've captured a cityscape or a main street. Even more people living their lives through harsh times and good times. One of these person's parents probably passed that morning. Another is battling a hangover from an incredible night. Another is battling a hangover from a terrible night. Another one didn't sleep because they were thinking about that person they met last week. This is the context and the people we're capturing when zooming out this far. We could zoom out again and be looking at the world, but we'll just grab a whole lot more of the same. A whole bunch of humans with a whole bunch of internal state are being manipulated and acted upon by their context and the environment that surrounds them. So, that's the exercise. Imagine zooming out again and again such that we can think about all the random pieces of life that humans endeavor. It's a sobering exercise. It lets us appreciate the ones around us more than we had. Everyone we meet has this twisted and arduous journey through hell and back that includes passed loved ones, beautiful nights, and incredible accomplishments. Every time we buy something and take the receipt from the cashier, we should be smiling back at them, for nothing more but the realization that they've also lived through the same wonderful experience that is life. Whether it was by our sides or across the globe. (Life, in this context, means the many random moments and interactions between the environment and us which somehow (delightfully so) gives meaning to our world.)
The saying, 'we are products of our environment,' has never held so much meaning. We are certainly acted upon by our environment at all times throughout our entire lives. It leads to the question, are we products of ourselves? Do we get to change our internal state if our context is doing so much of the heavy lifting (in other words, do we have free will)? Through my limited experience in physics, all I can say is, the verdict is still out on that one. Conversely, in a previous post, what are emotions, I say we have control over our internal state to the point of being able to change our context. Perhaps, these entries aren't that contrary after all. Perhaps the only free will we really have is the ability to change contexts. The ability to change the way our environment interacts with us. For example, say cold whether gives us dry and itchy skin. We have the ability to move somewhere with a warmer climate. Given the right context, and the right supportive environment to make such a move may be difficult to capture, however, not impossible.
Anyway, I need to get to work, hopefully this provides some insight to a question I've been asking myself for a few years now: do we control our internal state? Or does our context not only interact with us, but control us as well?
Sincerely,
Alex
TL;DR Context: Our surrounding environment, from humidity to temperature to ambient lighting. Me: The individual being stimulated by all the variables the context has to offer. This journal entry probes two issues. (1) Be mindful of the people around us, they endeavor very similar contexts as our own, and (2) Do we have free will? Or are we nothing but animated rocks reacting to the context that surrounds us?