Prepositions - Dec 5 2021

 

Prepositions

Dec 5 2021

In and of itself.

I suppose everything is

singular.

Contained

and self-referential.

But they also say

that enlightenment

is the dissolution of boundaries.

That you must look outside yourself, and accept

to grow and change

or risk stagnation.

So why does in-and-of-itself

still tempt me?

Is it because I hear in those words

integrity

and self-acceptance;

the charm

of the earnest eccentric,

living his quirky life

regardless.

Yet out-and-apart

sounds so cosmopolitan, open-minded;

and a homebody like me

would love to be thought

an extrovert

and man of the world.

Prepositions are small, but powerful

so be cautious with your words.

Because human beings are not, in fact, singular.

We are not autarchies,

apart

building walls

fortifying borders.

We need to belong

be part of,

trade gossip, rumours, scuttlebutt.

Talk, for it's own sake

in and of itself.

Exactly. We are, by nature, tribal, not solitary. But our culture is tightly bound to this worldview of the sovereign individual: the conceit of agency, self-sufficiency, uniqueness. While the truth is we not only depend on others and long to belong, we really only exist in the eyes of others: spend enough time alone on your desert island of one, and you soon begin to disappear into a sense of unreality and depersonalization.

I recently saw a brilliant and utterly original movie by Derek Del Gaudio called Is And Of Itself that featured a compelling combination of magic, sleight-of-hand, and personal story-telling. I was intrigued by that title, and subsequently seemed to repeatedly come upon this expression. And each time I did, it gave momentary pause. It finally came time to noodle around with it, and this rather philosophical poem is the result.