Acumen

Stating the obvious for a moment of limelight. Its the false sense of wisdom that I referred to a few months ago. Can we read people? Maybe we can’t?

I watch quietly three confused faces:

That of the perpetrator, the victim and even the observer

What just happened?

My logic jumps to, trying to tear apart the facts, each laced innately with bias of what I think just happened...

This bias is anchoring me, as I read a piece of new knowledge. I want so heavily to project all my previous knowledge and experiences of religion upon this. I consciously kick myself as I gaze out at the early morning lit Wellington harbour.

Matiu Somes anchors the harbour. Bernini’s ‘Apollo and Daphne’ sculpture of the Italian Renaissance winks back. Until now, a sculpture was complete from front on; but with this one had to physically walk around it to experience Daphne turning into a tree before Apollo touches her.

Being on the bus, riding along the harbour’s circumference, I too take a conscious journey around the many faceted Matiu Somes. Effortlessly.

I witness physically:

‘A heavy numbness seizes her into bark

Feet so swift to root

Arm to branch, and hair to leaf

Woman to tree.

And in the end it's the difference of the spirit and the matter
It's the difference of the lover and the flyer
Don't it make you want to cry? 

It is nothing less, nothing less between the worldly and the want so,
All this breathing and the truth is in your last breath,
don't it make you want to cry?

So flying, flying,

And the way like a leaf grown,

Flying, cos the truth is in the soul we grow,

Flying.’
 

I return to the manifesto of my friend and my sunrise of bias and discomfort. I, like I see Matiu Somes island, like how I walk around Apollo and Daphne in awe; can too, move my feet and my mind around the beliefs of others.

My religious experiences, even though at no point have I been tormented by them, are separate from my observational and open minded self.

I have, I see, been stating the obvious for a moment of limelight. Is it a false sense of wisdom that I impart? Can I read myself; maybe you can, and I can’t?

But, I can move my feet and my mind around the perceptions of others.