Floating In, On & Around...

Asking the lady at the front desk is it worth the $5 for the entrance fee.  Well if you have an open mind and enjoy alternative healing and medicine then yes it is worth every penny. Last week I went to holistic fair at the Masonic Temple on Saturday May 17. A small room packed with people and booths of all different types of healing remedies, machines, good karma sculptures, spiritual psychics, tarot card readers, henna tattoos and an aura photography machine.  It was interesting to say the least, I was a little outside my comfort zone, but it was good to have new experiences.  I attended the event in hopes of getting my palm read in turn helping me attain my goal for the year of finding my purpose.  No palm reader was there, but a spiritual physic reader was present.  His name was Sebastian from Sacramento, my spirit was speaking and what Sebastian said was well taken to my heart. He enlightened me with knowledge of myself by telling me things I did not want to hear, reinstating information I already new and words I needed to hear. This experience brought me full circle to an understanding of what it means to be an artist of the floating world.

There are so many times that we don’t listen to ourselves, but now I am at a turning point to listen one’s inner voice. In this floating world there are three aspects to be a responsible citizen.  The first to be a citizen of the floating world one must understand that their own narratives that shape and reshape our identity. Secondly, in each one of these narratives are moments that are like frames, events that we chose to live in.  Every choice made results in a reference point in our life, with each reference point gives us a perspective of our life. Our intuition and, internal voice are suppose to be a guide, but we so often ignore them.  Whether we believe in the voices or not they are always talking to us giving us wisdom and food for thought.  Thirdly, the subaltern voice gets lost due to the constant chaos of icons, logos and media. Take time to listen to subaltern voice and look past these distractions to find yourself. The authors Ishiguro, Head, and Mukherjee we have read this past year can help us find the way of the floating world.

In a post WWII Japan Ono tells his narrative about life, understanding, and finding identity. The message he guides us through An artist of the floating world by Kazuo Ishiguro realizing our perspective of who we are changes as time goes on. As an aging artist he looks back on his life and how he lived as a war artist.  Having respect and a great reputation he comes to the conclusion that he is not as well respected as he once was after the war. Always talking about the good all days he is caught up with nostalgia. He tells his story as if he is stuck in the past remembering what made him happy, thinking that maybe his life was better before the war. Caught up in his “well respect” identity of the past and not wanting it to change. His views do change in the end from denial, to understanding then acceptance of who he is today.  A lessoned learned from Ono is to take responsibility for your actions because the sum of actions is our identity.

Our identity is also shaped by our frames of reference. Bessie Head shares her frames of life with us in A Question of Power. Elizabeth the main character grew up in South Africa never really having a stable family, getting bits and pieces of religion, culture, and family from everyone.  Elizabeth never felt like she belonged anywhere she said that “I have always been just me, with no frame of reference to anything beyond myself” (3). Without having frames of reference you are like a boat in the sea without a compass, having no direction and nothing to relate to.  It’s a struggle of identity; she is lost in a world of mental instability and isolation. Throughout the story seeing visions and at times not knowing what’s real or fantasy. Elizabeth gets dragged through hell, moving back and forth from good and evil, but she survives. The result of struggle and pain leads to growth. She found a frame of reference after traveling in her frameless world. She became grounded by engaging in gardening and surrounding herself with people that loved and support her. She grew from her experiences in these narratives and chose to be a farmer, mother, a friend and free spirit. This novel shows that even in a frameless life one needs frame of reference to survive. But be wary frames should “always be moving”, if you stay in one frame too long you will go insane almost like Jasmine.

Jasmine the main character in the book Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee was born in Hasnapur Punjab India. She is a lively, brave and clever girl that grows up on a farm with seven siblings.  Having a predestined path she is unwilling to follow.  Fate has a funny way of keeping you on track. Jasmine does not want to believe her destiny that astrologer told her.  She wouldn’t believe that she would be a murder, a killer, mother, widow, exiled and raped, but the astrologer said “Fate is Fate” (4). No matter how much we resist something it is likely it will become a reality.  Running home talking to her sisters she said that “I know what I don’t want to become” (5).  This reference is denying what she was told even though she makes conscious decisions to shape her identity in the novel. It seems like she is actually being manipulated by her subalternity which is her denial and trying to run away from destiny.   Jasmine should not shut out the voices that are different from what her mind is thinking, but rather be aware of them and constantly reflect on ones subaltern voice. She eventually comes to grips with herself and frees herself and runs away to California.  We can learn from Jasmine to listen to the voices that talk to you.  It is a deeper self that is trying to help lead you in the right direction.

In conclusion, staying up with ones identity, choosing your frames of reference, and listening to our subalternity are three ways to be a citizen of the floating world. My experience of encountering  my spirit, voice, subaltern speaking to me through a conduit named Sebastian,  allowed me to learn about my deeper self, and  I now believe I know my identity a little bit better.  Going to a holistic fair was outside my normal frame of reference which, however it was a learning experience because there was growth in myself and a broadening of my horizons. Finally, the most important entity I need to recognize is to listen to my deeper self and follow the words of wisdom full heartedly. Our voices speak pearls of wisdom for a reason, but most of the time we get distracted, so it is important to stop and listen to the truth of ones voice in order to understand the floating world.