BELONGING.
Art : Paris.
By Sakuan.
The sense of belonging has always been a hit or miss, at least to me it is, ever since I was a young boy the experiences I went through tend to agree with this thought. Belonging to someone, something, or an idea is scary to me, it wasn’t always scary but the older I get the more I understand how scary it really is, it would be to you too if you looked at the world the way I do today. Belonging requires you to identify yourself as something or someone, it isn’t that simple, the thing is when you identify yourself as belonging to something then you have the obligation to defend that thing, most of us don’t know how to do that, hence a lot of conflict arises in the process. Most of us are so far gone when it comes to defending what we define ourselves as that we are delusional when it comes to the matter, more times than not we tend not the understand the other side of the story let alone lend it an ear in the first place. This is something that bothers me at times, that I can’t lie. People believe in different things based on their environments, like I’ve said before it is so weird that different countries and cultures have different rules, or may I say LAWS, that will only occur to you when you think about it when you go to Rome do what Romans do, as the saying goes, that saying couldn’t be more fitting with the times we live in. In some countries being homosexual is illegal while in some it’s not. This is mainly disturbing because the way people are treated in these countries is solely based on a belief so old that we can’t even tell why that decision was made in the first place, probably because science wasn’t where it is right now but I couldn’t tell you for sure.
I’m scared of belonging t anything, at least by definition mainly because I do believe that once I identify as something now I’ll have to defend that thing when it’s under attack, or follow certain rules that the identity comes with, defending something is way harder and more challenging than being part of it, that’s for sure. There is a voluntarily belonging and an involuntarily belonging, for example, you can’t choose where you were born, so by definition, you have to follow the laws that place has to offer, you have no choice in that, but then there is a social group that you choose to be a part of, now that is a belonging you chose and by its definition, you now are obligated to satisfy its needs, because if not then what is the point of belonging in it?
The actions that you partake in can also automatically put you in a place of belonging and this is not necessarily by choice but by definition. For example, I like writing and drawing that might make me a writer and an artist, by definition and practice I am but does that make me have an obligation to defend everything that comes with art and writing, do I have to put on my suit of armor and carry my sword for its honor, why should I be obligated to do that, is it out of respect? Or is it out of love? I wonder.
Currently reading [God is Not One by Stephen Prothero]
