How has the context of the day shaped you and why?
We ask for context in our greetings; ‘How are you?, yet we seem to have fallen into a habit of responding as a courtesy rather than a transmission of information that can build an understanding of the state ourselves and the other person are in.
Are we afraid of informing each other of our current context; How we are feeling and what is happening in our lives?
The group seemed to suggest that we hide our present contexts because they can act as burdens for people who simply wish to get on with their day, doing things and executing life efficiently. This I can empathise with as I do not want to have a stranger’s life of context unloaded upon me as I try to shop at the farmers market. However avoiding listening and understanding another’s context or not having the time and patience has impacted our society to a great affect.
Polarisation is a symptom of being too busy to listen to each other’s context. So instead we fill the other’s context with fearful projection to confirm our own moral superiority and contain ourselves within echo chambers. This is an issue that the human group resolves, a practice in listening and building a contextual understanding of each other whilst developing our own perspective.
We are lacking context due to the rapid pace in which we live. So where do we go from here? If taking the time to hear a stranger’s context can develop our empathy and understanding for one another and this might be ten minutes out of your day. What happens if we dedicate a greater portion to listening?
Tyson Yunkaporta, in a recent podcast with the future thinkers, spoke of an aspect of the indigenous perspective as a listening of each other and the environment through context. Through the ever changing interaction of infinite elements expressing in that present moment as something totally unique.
What if our awareness of the present context was developed to the point in which we start to perceive reality beyond that in which we ‘know’; the facts, stories and knowledge that has come before us.
What if we developed our sense to the extent in which context was built not only from ideas but from the totality of what we perceive?
Comments