Other than their set definitions and meanings, words, numbers, colours and objects tend to carry a signification beyond their immediate and felt denotations. People usually attribute feelings and memories to particular places, people, animals, etc. These subjective associations can be applied to things as common and ordinary as hunger and thirst.
Hunger and thirst are two natural and perfectly normal feelings. Yet, when they are used in a metaphorical context, for me they become charged with different connotations: hunger is out of greed, thirst out of need. To me it feels that to be hungry for something is a selfish act, an act of wanting; wanting to satisfy a personal and selfish desire. To be thirsty, on the other hand, arises out of needing; a need pure and passionate.
This does not mean that thirst has superiority over hunger, or that hunger is a vice. Only that these feelings have their specific applications. Hunger can be associated with things such as knowledge, career, and personal growth; it becomes synonymous with ambition; whereas for love, feelings and people, thirst, I believe, is more appropriate. Thus their priority and virtue lie in their application and not in their specific nature.
I know that what I have described may seem a little strange at first sight; it felt strange to myself when I first thought about it! But when I looked closer at things around me I realised that I have similar feelings about a lot of things: I try to ‘subjectify’ the objective world to make better sense of it. I think this is true for many people.
On thinking about the relation between subjectivity and objectivity, I have come to believe that perhaps our different viewpoints, beliefs and interpretations of the most objective of things, come as a result of the subjectivity of our objectivity! But then again...this is my personal and subjective opinion!
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Dear Marzieh,
ReplyDeleteI will come back to properly read - as it's the end of hard work here online.
Yet, before I leave, I must tell you how glad I am to see once more your most beautiful, balanced and positive voice...
And to speak for many of us...that we are most glad you are once again here "among us".
"Thus their priority and virtue lie in their application and not in their specific nature."
ReplyDeleteThis line of yours captures the essence of what you seem to be saying here. Yet perhaps you are also showing how use of metaphor is not so caught within particular cultures as we may assume? While there may be some interesting variations upon more exploration?
I don't remember considering hunger to be a metaphor for the baser values while thirst to be for the higher... yet now I will most likely always be more aware of these applications after reading this piece of yours.
As an evening meditation I came upon the following in a book by a mystic which uses BOTH hunger and thirst as metaphors for spiritual and life discernment in rather similar ways. IE: "One cannot jump in every river, nor dive into every pond. Nor roll in any field. Nor taste every joy...Not every rapture is a preview of heaven or a preparation for it...We are called to ecstasy, but in responding we must take note of who is calling...no matter how ravenously hungry we be, not everything that passes for good can be eaten. No matter how thirsty, some drink is poisonous. Our spiritual hunger and thirst are more real than bodily - our desires for eternal union in love more powerful than anything temporal. We are deceived when we forget that we are immortal and that our basic longings are infinite..."
By the way, Marzieh, I love the way you choose and use language and topics (often of a universal nature) in sometimes quite original ways - and how you allow us to view some of your discussions with yourself. Also, I like how you brought humor into this discussion toward the end.
Dear Connie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the welcoming note. I am very glad to be writing again now that I have more time, and also to be reading your lovely comments, and to be back ‘among you’.
It is always intriguing to read your comments. You make me think about some of the points in my own writings which I may not have been aware of. To be honest I had no intention of reflecting on the way metaphor may be used within a particular culture and I don’t really know if I have. What I had in mind was to show my feelings toward this particular topic and link this idea to the general one of the extent of the subjectivity of our world. Strange as it may be, I have feelings for even numbers and colours and I wonder if this holds true for YOU or even other people. I’m very grateful to you for paying attention to and pointing out things which I may have totally missed otherwise.
Thanks for your insightful and welcoming comments.
I do have strong feelings for colours yet not for numbers except for 7. I'd love to hear more about your feelings for colours and numbers.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would love to get back to this same topic and/or variations of the same. A number of themes here interest me: the extent of subjectivity of our world - it's usefulness - possible limitations? Also the limitations of objectivity alone - at the same time what is the best value of the same?
You bring up another really interesting matter: how important and when is it helpful, interesting, enlightening even and fun to discuss cultural differences in use of metaphor? When is it simply better to be as natural and free as possible from those considerations? I really feel a kinship with you as if we had a similar background on a non-tangible basis- if not outwardly - at least inwardly. Interesting realization...
Also, I would like to get back to the experience of hunger versus thirst...it's just not been on my "radar" until recently - until just before reading your blog on this matter - coincidental to read your post here the next day after I had run across that mystical quote I mentioned in my first "real" response to yours...
ReplyDeleteThirst with it's association with water does have a sense of something more pure, perhaps - on one level. Water is such a beautiful metaphor in dreams and in meditations and guided imagery - as well as in life.
We live near many waterfalls...they have a wonderful sound. I love to go to sleep with the sound of waterwheels (I used to do so) or to put on a CD with the sound of the Sea...
I hope ReeBz or Ahktar and others will find this post and respond. I'd love to see how they each relate to these gently- stirring suggestions and metaphors. This feels like a most fertile literary/spiritual discussion you have raised.
Marzieh,
ReplyDeleteI still hope to post your item on Iran soon. Do let me know if there are any further thot's, quotes, comments or any photos you wanted me to add to that post? If not, what you have written is perfect by itself. Shall I also put your blogsite address or not?
Connie,
ReplyDeleteI have nothing further to add at this moment and I don't mind you posting my blogsite address either :)