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I. Navel Gazing
Lots of juicy comments lately: thank you!
Annika, for instance, wrote a most wonderful comment on the subject of trying to find comonality (on the post Contact).
Since it gives me an excuse to post a photo of the topless Captain Kirk, which I know Annika would approve, I'm cut-and-pasting part of her comment here:
"The [Orwell] episode with the prisoner and the puddle reminded me of something else: belly buttons.
"This anatomical detail makes me feel instantly connected to another being,
reminds me that we're basically the same kind.
I've noticed the feeling when a stranger, or a person I don't like,
stretches so that his shirt reveals his navel - I suddenly feel a kind of tenderness.
"I've noticed it when seeing a dolphin turning onto its back,
showing not only the hint of a belly button, but also a human-looking six-pack around it.
I've even noticed it when looking at a little tin figurine of a minotaur.
Funny."
[end of Annika's comment]
II. Tribes
This also applies to the question in the post below: What's your tribe?
How far out can we go before we lose the awareness, "This being is like me?"
How much might/could this awareness--or the cultivation of it--foster compassion toward other beings?
And, speaking of good commenters, Margaret sent me a picture relating to the Tribe of Readers. I added it to the post below, but it's so good--and iillustrates a similarity I had noticed too--I'm pulling it out and posting it here again:
