The way we look at things dictates what things are; there is no one world; there are only ways to look at it. Something in me compels me to look at the commonalities of all things in the world. It is easier for me to stare at a bee buzzing around my drink and think of how that has something to say about how we are slaves to what we crave than it is for me to think of how a bee is a nuisance, and I must hush it away. It is how we are built that builds the world around us. I see common ground where there is none, similarity where there is nothing but difference. For better or worse, the world will forever look like this to me: a stream of intersections where everything affects everything. I often think about what came first: this disposition against difference or my relentless hope for all of us. I wonder which caused which, and like a classic chicken and egg problem, we shall not know until much, much later.
For now, I sit in a place, not unlike the one I come from; surely, the words are different, and from what I can gather, the bees prefer rum. Still, there is more around me that makes me feel like I have always been here, and if not, that I could be here and be the same person I am right now for as long as I stay the way I am. But I will change, and so will how I look at things. If there is something I have learned in this life that finds a way to surprise me when I least expect it, it is that it all begins with time. The times change, changing us in the process, and when we change, so does the world. People think it is the other way round, that the world changed them, but that is seldom the case. Even learning a new word makes it appear everywhere. Most things are behind invisible veils, hidden only by what we choose not to see. That does not mean they are not there; it only means we see less than we think we do.
And if we look closely, and if we look at the bigger picture, and if we somehow manage to do it together, we can often get a peek through the curtain. It is when we see how it’s all the same. But what do I know? I only see what I see. Someone else may see nothing but difference, and being as I am, I will find something in common with them, too.