Or “Why Ghosts Work so Hard to be Seen”

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It is a kind of transgression – moving through the world without definition.

Like ghosts.

Predictability is absolute control, and we like boundaries, boxes and walls. We draw them on and around one another. Invisible lines – undeniably present.
There is an insoluble tension between self-discipline and creativity. It is why we simultaneously admire and fear artists; why there is the tragicomic trope about the artist & his muse.

I suppose the gender-swapped trope is the wild woman & the average Joe. A woman who is an artist is still transgressive. We will break the boundaries of gender and of sex itself before we can quit misogynistic norms. Share permissions.

But that isn’t what is on my mind this morning, really.

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It’s funny how someone can casually bump into a sore spot and send waves of pain through the body. That’s not a metaphor: sometimes it isn’t all in the head, it’s all in the body.

Try to define pain: it is transgressive. And it reminds us that the through-line is submerged, not severed.

A true severing anywhere is the moment of death.

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“Outside the box” is just a shift in perspective. Not a severing. A disconnected view is an illusion – soothing as it is, bolstering as it is.

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How many people want to “fix” each other by shifting perspective, by redefining boxes.

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How many people lack depth perception. Because isn’t that what compassion really is?