I have always found the Mobius strip to an impossible shape, much like the Penrose triangle. Well, I know it is not impossible but I think it is in terms of how people set their inner and outer lives. As I watched the video, Parker Palmer was talking about becoming "centered." The circle shape that becomes a wall. I do not see this as a fault. I got the idea that Palmer was saying to strive to become less circular and more like a Mobius strip. His reasoning was that we lose a part of souls as we worry about our roles in succeeding in the real world. We lose our wholesomeness that we were born with. Integrating our inner and outer lives together would make us a complete person living dual realities.
Having a wall that separates the inner world you live in from your outer world is what makes people unique. Starting off with no boundary as a child and moving onto adolescence is normal. It is the building of the wall that gives the world introverts and extroverts, different cultures that can focus on the self or the community. I don't think that we lose ourselves. The changes and developments that happen are normal as we enter adulthood. The roles that we play are ourselves. It is when we enter late adulthood that this Mobius strip is completed. Our vast buildup of skills and experiences give us a sense of being complete human beings.
Antonio,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that having a wall to separate the inside self from the outside self is not a fault. If we were to be completely transparent, fusing our multiple personas together, we would leave ourselves very exposed and vulnerable to the outside world. I think this is the benefit of the Mobius strip. It helps us develop the skills necessary to navigate such a dangerous social world while also allowing us to hold on to the things that make us unique.
Antonio,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughts on the mobius strip. I enjoyed the description of the mobius strip and Dr. Palmer's view of how our inner and outer lives should flow. However, after reading your opinion, I was reminded of a thought I had while I was watching the video, it was actually a prediction of the direction I thought the video was heading (I was wrong).
Anyway, the thought I had was this- In our lives we have circles of people that we interact with. The outer circle are our acquaintances, maybe some co-workers, the people we say on a daily basis, these are people we know and interact with often, but aren't that close with. The next circle are our friends and maybe some family members that we spend a considerable amount of time with, and the innermost circle consists of our core. These core people are our spouses, best friends, siblings, or those who we are closest with. Thinking about those we interact with in this model helps me identify who to flow like a circle around and who to flow like a mobius strip around. I'm not going to be my most vulnerable self around my boss, or the barista at Starbucks, but I am going to be vulnerable around my husband and my mom.