At one time, when my son was a small boy I would ask him:

Where do you live?

He answered with good sense:
“Street so and so, second floor.”

I would smile and correct him didactically:

“No Daniel, you live in the Endless, immense Universe, in the Virgo Supercluster, the Milky Way Galaxy of numberless stars and planets, the Solar System, on our good old Planet Earth, continent Europe, Switzerland, Geneva, by the lake Leman on the Rhone river, in Onex, rue Gros-Chêne, 14A, second floor. You live in the World.”

He understood what I meant, quickly, like a smart kid; and he lives his adult life accordingly (or almost).

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It helps to know where you live to think out of the box or when little people bother you down here in the pit.

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There are countries, recently “freed” where people do not realise how they are purposefully, methodically dwarfed in their soul by the mere microscopic placement of their home address or name.

Good people consider normal to be recognized to exist and be enabled to sign with their name only after being identified as: identity complete, birth date and place, card number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, series XXX, delivered by local authority XYZ now confirmed as living in Region XX, City XXXXXXXX, Sector XX, Bloc XXX, Door XX, Staircase Xb, floor XX, app. XX.

In their address there is no reference, of course, of Europe, the World, Earth and so on; but they still get harangued – daily -  of being responsible for the greenness of the planet, the regular famine in the third world, the barbarianism of religious oppression far away and the huge bright promise of Paradise which is living in One Global World, free, modern and civilised.

There is always higher than high and lower than low, deeper than deep, wider than wide, more than more and less than less, stronger than strong and weaker than weak, older than old and newer than new.  


There is forever something else; and from a changed perspective things appear different, with altered meaning and new horizons.
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Our human strength is to travel in the mind and to foresee the new landscapes we do not yet behold yet with our eyes.

The flow of mind is not only something that just happens to us: perceiving, being, doing, thinking and feeling; no, we are not mere force-fields of causalities mirrored more or less as they are.

We have the reflexive might of the person, of “I”; to be aware that we are and what we do and why. This opens an ability to observe ourselves and our context with detachment, as from above, or to question the roots of that which seems obvious to us. 

Consciousness and imagination are a loss of innocence that allows us - as agents - to understand where we are, and who we are, in a way that enables us to take distance and freedom from that place and identity. Thus, we gain some power to act and to create that which is not given.   

I like to call the strategy that considers all things from the next higher, wider, or – on the contrary - deeper level, the n±1 principle.     

If you feel curious, read the whole article.
 

Don’t we all need firm ground under our feet?
Don’t we guard our sturdy roots and reliable traditions?
Don’t we build homes, sweet homes, with solid walls and foundations to withstand adversity?

Misfortunately, no ramparts resist the water that surges, when change floods and wheels of History start to move. The cemented attachment of the building is its very weakness and demise.

To prepare for times of change I recall the Hagakure, the book of the samurai from old: “When the water rises, so does the boat.” [1] This is what I understand: Instead of bracing to keep where you are, have an open plan, as simple as a cork; be ready to float and rise wherever the water will soar.

This means among other subtle things, that you should not plan what you will do in in this and that condition - which is to defend a fixed position, but plan instead what you will pursue in any conditions - to keep afloat and to sail, with your purpose, your values and your direction. Fluctuat nec mergitur... Curiously, in unfavourable times, the more you are flexible seen from outside, the better you can be unyielding at the core. I saw those who do the opposite, broken quite quickly.

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[1] The precise quotation is "The more the water, the higher the boat." Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai (Translation By W. S. Wilson), Kodansha International, Tokyo..., 1979