Tuesday, September 01, 2009

been here before - de ja vue ?


.....how come I love the messy shops, the lively raucaus restaurants, the worn outness of buildings, narrow winding streets so much ? - I've just arrived in Macau, 29Aug09 at 22:30 
If I was ever  going to talk about having lived in a place in another lifetime, and I had to pick a place, this would be one of them for sure.
I feel at home here straight after arriving at  10:30pm via Kuala Lumpur and an 11 hour stopover. 
I surprise myself with the confidence with which I lounge in the corner of  a restaurant, order stuff, get served by guys without shirts wearing old shorts, because its clean-up and close-up time but the white gringo wanted some of the last bits of food in the trays before they got cleaned  away.



There is another city that affected me like this as well: I mean the impression of having lived there before, a kind of deja vue. The place is Tangier, it also has lots  of narrow winding  streets, hot climate, but is very different.
      Thinnking about this a bit, I've found that it is not the logic of philosophical arguments that convince people of a philosopy, but how well those philosophies describe the feelings within them.
      In my case: I would never ever in a million years have given any consideration to the idea of other lifetimes, - but because  of various  experiences such as these (visiting places I feel I'm sure I've been to before)  make me consider it.
      Why consider it ? simply  because it is the currently best explanation I can come up with for myself, it covers my PERSONAL experiences in the best way and it explains it in a way I like. I notice the addition of the word  'like'. Because there are hundreds of other logical alternative explanations to any experience. 
          Thus it seems to me that it is not logic that decides the type of explanation we choose but our 'liking' - even if it is carefully hidden from ourselves,---- by logic.
         I could explain it all in social theories, evolution, chemistry, and other ways that to ME make it all so tawdry and boring and dull and make me feel like an impersonal blob.
     I *prefer* the idea that I'm in a schoolroom, in the University of life.
     In this I am following my 'hero'and mentor in metaphysics
George MacDonald (1824-1905) who said something akin to: änything is believabble which is morally believable and enobling"  :-) .



More on travel in Macau here.

 

'dance me to the children who are asking to be born....'  - Leonard Cohen

Haiko's - blog list here or direct: life42  or backpacking or  stories. --> Risks of being alive & Media :-)

I walk with her, and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings....
I hear the sound of her wings.... and the darkness lifts from my soul...



No comments:

Post a Comment