The Brick Alley and the Stone Walled Jail

Hello, this is Amorella. The photograph is a reminder of the existential elements in this blog. Human beings exist on this area of planet and this is an example of simple urban art created by free will.

I was struck by the dimensions of brick alleyway and the stone, the vertical black bars on the window add yet another perspective. An existential moment also deals with a commitment. Gaining a driver’s license, taking marriage vows, and even a handshake can be existential moments. My existential moments, many of them, exist at the keyboard. Getting the words out makes me free. They put me in the alleyway outside the jail cell.

Does your inner freedom depend on particular words or will any words do?

As I enjoy the freedom of the public library, quiet words will do. The written words are quieter still. I do not focus well verbalizing.

I meant do any specific words make you freer?

This question reminds me of Robert Heinlein’s one time famous book, Stranger in a Strange Land. I used that book as one of the four main required fictions in my Futures Studies/Science Fiction class at Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati. The novel’s main character is a small earthling left on Mars and raised by Martians. His name is Valentine Michael Smith. Michael uses the Martian word, “Grok” which to me means, ‘complete empathetic understanding’. Looking up the word in Wikipedia I find this definition:

The Oxford English Dictionary defines grok as "to understand intuitively or by empathy; to establish rapport with" and "to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment."

I would agree with the Oxford except for ‘enjoyment’ which in Heinlein’s book includes a focus on sexual enjoyment. I am not a prude but when I use the word grok I think of ‘experiencing delight’ which has a broader and more abstract meaning in my mind than enjoyment which would include the basic, the carnal bodily pleasures. However, in context with the book ‘to experience enjoyment’ works well in the Oxford.

Any word I can grok makes me freer because it broadens my mind’s dimensional perspective and makes me more humane in the process. To be humane to is be free because that is basic condition of being human. I am committed to be a free thinking human being first in my mind.