Feuilletons of a Lost Explorer - Chapter 1

A Walk Down Subjectivity - Feuilletons of a Lost Explorer #1

     I rarely search for a companion in my travels. Often times I prefer the lonesome travel of solitude, which offers me time to get lost in thought. However sometimes I do enjoy the companionship of certain individuals. I tend to remain an observer in my life, seldom taking part in events, as I am too busy exploring the world in my head, rather than the real one. With somebody to share my walks however I obtain the honour of observing the world through their eyes, a world absolutely different from what I see. At times like that I am reminded that despite all of my efforts to remain objective, I (and everybody else) perceive the world subjectively. The solution then becomes to share each of our own subjective realities to solve the puzzle that our world is. Such thoughts are present in philosophy, exploring the nature of objectivism.

      It was a time like those when I had a companion with whom to share a part of my lost journey. It was mid autumn. The leafs have mostly fallen off, covering the ground in an orange shade. She was obtruding from the scenery with her pleasantly yellow jacket. The winter sun had been partially hidden by the mountain and whatever rays could pass coloured the view in even more yellow. We were walking down a path near a busy road. The sound of cars in a hurry to nowhere could barely be noticed. A warm mild wind was blowing from West in our faces. We had been walking like that for awhile now and we had not shared a word. At least to me there was no anxiety or tension in the silence, I found it quite pleasant. We were capable of enjoying each other's company without the need to engage in awkward conversations. I was preoccupied with gazing at the sky, observing the interesting shapes of the clouds, when I noticed that my companion had engaged in a rather peculiar activity - every time a leaf came into her path, she stepped on it. She was looking in the ground. I was about to ask her for the reason behind this such odd activity, when to my mind came the question - "Where did all the leafs came from?". I looked up and sure enough - there were trees right above us which still had some stray leafs on them. I had stared right through them in the sky and had not noticed them and probably would have never become aware of their existence, had it not been to my companion.

      As I reflected on that I realised we both would have had absolutely different stories about our walk - I probably would have spoken of the sky, the clouds, and the sun, while my companion would tell of leafs, stones, and holes on the ground. Both of us would have absolutely ignored the trees above us. It is this that subjectiveness is - the world is simply to massive for us to comprehend it, so we change it - we focus on parts of it, modifying the scenery, and putting ourselves in the centre. However as we share our stories we learn of an alternate universe we walked right pass by.