Do Not Disturb

I wish I could put into words this idea I have here about the different sense of privacy they have over here. I’ve tried to make a little impact as possible but invariably I couldn’t help but spread out all over. After returning yesterday, I found everything folded neatly and put into various drawers. This required them to go through pretty much everything I own. I’m sure it never entered their mind that I would feel a loss of privacy, nor should it.

Today I was in my room trying to write something on my laptop. First one child enters and gently disturbs the peace. Then another followed by a third and so on until the entire regiment of kids are abuzz with activity all around me. The sense of spontaneous life in this room if a true gift and isn’t easily found or created.

The kids of course lost interest in me so I slipped out and headed for my uncles bedroom which is right in the middle of the house, door always open. I only hesitated for a moment before entering reflecting on why I now hesitate. I sit down on the bed and from this vantage point, can monitor all the activity of the house. I understand the lack of privacy here both on the practical and emotional level. What is given up here is exchanged for a sense of belonging that can only be felt and not described, at least not by me.

Those of us in the west greedily guard our privacy. The cost is a sense of belonging that resonates at the core. While maintaining this high level of privacy, we frantically search for that missing something, but unwilling to pay the seemingly heavy price to obtain it. As the generations pile on top of the bones of the past, we don't even know what it is we are missing. As humans we were meant to be in commune with one another, and at many different degrees.

I'm not sure how to give thanks for being given the opportunity to gain a glimpse of this lost time from the vantage point of the future. We won’t be living in this form of purgatory long enough to develop the rituals needed from which to provide a sense of comfort… whatever the heck all that means.