Sak · Maps

Little Creatures

01.26.10 21:20
Section: Maps
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Essays

Imagine that all throughout your life there are tiny, invisible creatures that hover about you. Well, they’re not entirely invisible; you can see them if you want to.

As you start looking for, and at, them you begin to notice that they are each somewhat unique, though sometimes they may be similar. The more you look, the more you notice how many of them there are; and the harder you look at one of them, the greater detail you see and develop for them. A swarm of tiny creatures moving around and through you, at times gently caressing you, kissing you softly to tickle your cheek, or bring a certain light to your eyes, a scent you hadn’t considered before, a dizzying passion, lust, or fear. Each of these little creatures is completely unique to you. They come to exist because one of them happened to brush up against another that was hovering about someone else, or because of some other experience or input; something you read, or heard, or saw. In this way, the little creatures are constantly being regenerated, born anew, and also diminish; giving themselves to person, paper, song, or form. Some that are reduced are only noticed and then left to flutter away into something you happened to say one day during some frivolous conversation; they fade away, but only slightly.

You see, these little creatures are something that need to leave you, as much as they are nurtured by you and you by them. They need to be sent off into the world, and toward other people, so that other little creatures may be born around those other people and will change their lives; some for the better, and others for the worse.

Now consider, as difficult as it is to really begin to notice these little creatures and to appreciate them in the first place, there is also the critical importance of nurturing them. They are, after all, akin to organic little creatures. They need to be fed, and given light and your breath for air. They need to be caressed, in as much as they caress you, and they need to be loved, respected, studied and inspected to understand how to feed them, to raise them into profound little creatures that are steady and sure. The little creatures are vastly important to the human race, and if they are not nurtured, they will simply puff out in some idle chit-chat, barely offering a glimpse of their existence to another, possibly stunting the birth and growth of other little creatures. This is the fate of the most of them; they exist only as a brief, departing impression, holding onto hope that as they diminish that they will plant the seed of their existence into another person’s space.

And so you love your little creatures. You spend a great deal of time watching them, caring for them, inspecting their various details as you offer them more, merging more of your experience to them in order to build them up. You notice how they tug at your chest from time to time and cause your heart to beat more rapidly, or how they occasionally rest on your jugular and bring about a lump in your throat. Sometimes they tickle your loins, compelling heat and passion, while at other times they run playfully up and down your spine with tingling warmth. They move about your whole body, your arms and legs and head, giving you strength to run, to ride a bicycle, to dance, and to dance differently. They are the reason why a tree or a building that you’ve passed a hundred times may look completely different to you one day; may suddenly be inspiring, or frightening, because you took the time to notice. And so you love them for this. You pluck them from the air and you tickle them. You softly rub their little underbellies. You inspect their every wondrous detail. After all, they are everything to you, the little swarm of them, all circling around you, and you want nothing more than to bring them into better clarity and strength so that they may go out and mingle with other little creatures.

But now imagine that you are within a box; as many of us are. It’s a transparent, somewhat malleable box, and it has the ability to become porous. It already is porous, except mostly in only one direction. The box only allows other little creatures in, but yours have great difficulty in getting out; hence the reason they often times diminish by way of passing conversation. It’s a big enough box that you can still enjoy the company of your little creatures swarming all about you, and you are able to move freely as they are able to move freely about you. The box’s holes to the outside are opening and closing at random, and sometimes in the wrong places for one of your little creatures to get out. The holes can be stretched open by you, but there is difficulty in holding them open long enough that you may coax a little creature, one you have been loving and nurturing, to escape through the hole. The little creature may become caught up in the hole, somewhat deformed as it finally makes its way out. You can see, as it leaves you, as it leaves the box, that it doesn’t quite look like the same little creature that you cherished inside the box. This brings you great despair and anxiety. You want nothing more than to allow your creatures to flourish from all that you have to offer, and then be freed to impregnate the area of another person, giving birth to other new little creatures.

They are a gift, and being unable to give them is very sad.

Working to understand the confinement within your box, you are able to move about, and learn. You understand new ways of taking in new little creatures that help propagate your own little creatures; developing methods for tearing lasting openings in your box. You learn how to learn, to understand and recognize limitations of the box, as well as the gift of the little creatures. In time, from studying the box, you learn that it has limitations and weaknesses. It can be overcome, so that your little creatures are able to escape whole, without deformation, into the world and plant their magical little seed into the area of another person, to be shared. You begin to understand that it is even possible that the box be torn down altogether; that there is a possibility of no confining barrier to you and your little creatures, and that all you need to do in order to share one of the little creatures that you have been loving and nurturing for some time is simply wave your hand; encouraging with a gentle, releasing gesture that moves the little creature joyfully from you to the area of another, and another, as if in the form of that new script, song, or dance.

This may be a long way off for many of us who are walking around with these strange, transparent boxes around us, limiting us from sharing our little creatures with one another; struggling with helping each other grow and understand. Particularly gifted are those who have never had a box about them, but also very rare.

Look around you for your little creatures, and once you have recognized them, look for the box that confines you. You are now only at the beginning, but with effort and dedication you can learn to nurture magnificent little creatures that are able to fly about freely from you without constraint.

But the beauty begins only when you take the time to look.