LET'S TALK ABOUT . . .


                                               "LANGUAGES WITHIN BOXING ARENAS"


As human beings we have all been conditioned in multiple contexts.  At times there may be such a mixture of defining contexts that it takes years to come to a realization of the multifaceted nature of our conditioning influences, let alone the intersecting nature of them.  It often resembles a Venn diagram from set theory (Set A intersects with Set B and forms Set C) in the field of mathematics.
Think about how convoluted and innovative that becomes when you have multiple or an infinite number of sets intersecting.

We are often unaware or unconditioned to recognize how many conditioned languages we speak out of these defining contexts.  I will never forget being asked to proof read a doctoral dissertation as a  "critical friend" in an academic process.  It took hours for me to complete because I decided to do so by identifying the various language bases through which I was going to read it and comment on it by color-coding my responses with various colors of ink: as a woman, as a therapist, as a theologian, etc.  I was shocked at the response of the student who did not appreciate the importance of language grids on our understanding of any given piece of work.

Have you ever been a part of a choral group so proficient at singing harmonic parts that when they are all blended a new part arises out of the blend that defies definition by virtue of the blend alone?  It is uncanny to be a part of such a process and usually take a master conductor to pull it off well.  It is somewhat illusive and mysterious.  I have heard many try to explain its existence away in one fashion or another.  It is as if they are unaware or cannot tolerate from a nonanxious posture why such might actually exist in the realm of wave theory.

I refer here to examples from the fields of mathematics and music because they are what I would call universal languages.  No matter where you go 4 is 4 and middle C is middle C even if they are called by other names in other language bases or contexts.  The same is true in many fields of science, like physics, medicine, etc.  If it were not true that there are universal constants expressed in universal languages, how would scientists share their findings or collaborate in research?  How would composers translate across language and cultural bases?

I would submit that this is not only true in one realm of life, like the hard sciences.  I believe it is also true on the side of the soft sciences and existential disciplines.  For example, I believe there are universal, if not eternal principles that one will never break, they will only be broken against them.
I have been trying to empirically observe the outworking of this foundational belief for decades.  It is an interesting and dynamic field in which one must be comfortable allowing the mysterious to exist and be able to embrace it without always needing to explain or resolve it.  Such a need will only limit one's ability to learn from that which is truly mysterious and unexplainable.

We are most comfortable with that which we can understand and tangibly grasp, those entities that are within the box of our comfort zones.  Comfort zones, apart from or even based on biogenetics, are powerfully conditioned/conditioning entities.  We are often uncomfortable with anything outside the box of our understanding.  It creates anxieties within us.  It limits our abilities to explore and learn, to be innovative while still holding on to the constants of life.

We stumble over language barriers and comfort zones more than we realize.  That which is truly mysterious, truly outside the boxes of our understanding and comfort zones create anxieties within us.  We all have a tendency to "box," compartmentalize, life in order to feel more secure.  When you couple different language bases and comfort zones one begins to realize why there is so debate, defensiveness and sparring within the arenas of our lives!

Until next time . . . this is, Just Janice!