Dear Maddie,
What is it to know someone? Not the things they like, not the things they say or do, but to know someone, to know that part of them that is indescribable, inexplicable. What is it to know someone that way?
The kind of know that doesn’t mean you can predict their behavior or recite verbatim every thought they’ve ever had, but the kind of know that resonates with what you are. What is it to know someone like that?
That’s the know I’m wondering about, the kind of know that settles on what you are, not who you are. Who you are is fleeting, a shifting identity influenced by external factors, a compilation of facts and experiences. What you are is permanent and untouchable, the kind of thing I think religion references as soul.
What is it to know the very essence of someone, that which would remain if everything else fell apart, if nothing ever was or everything was all at once, the part that would always be the same?
And furthermore, what is it for someone to know that part of you? What exposure, raw and vulnerable…
How do you get there and then, once you have it, once it’s staining your fingertips and murmuring breathy, senseless things along the curve of your cheek, what do you do with it?
What do you do with it?
- M
The kind of know that doesn’t mean you can predict their behavior or recite verbatim every thought they’ve ever had, but the kind of know that resonates with what you are. What is it to know someone like that?
That’s the know I’m wondering about, the kind of know that settles on what you are, not who you are. Who you are is fleeting, a shifting identity influenced by external factors, a compilation of facts and experiences. What you are is permanent and untouchable, the kind of thing I think religion references as soul.
What is it to know the very essence of someone, that which would remain if everything else fell apart, if nothing ever was or everything was all at once, the part that would always be the same?
And furthermore, what is it for someone to know that part of you? What exposure, raw and vulnerable…
How do you get there and then, once you have it, once it’s staining your fingertips and murmuring breathy, senseless things along the curve of your cheek, what do you do with it?
What do you do with it?
- M