Billy Buntin
- Jul 4, 2021
- 2 min read

Unlearning.

I’ve been playing with the idea that we exist, each in our unique and separate worlds. Our sense of reality - a blurry projection of our own biases and beliefs.

Our bodies relate in a common space & time ... but the experience of our interactions must filter through isolated minds.

When I step into a room, you do not actually perceive me.

You cannot perceive me - as I am, in my completeness.

I’m an infinitely complex being, striving my way through this physical existence.

The attributes that meaningfully define me - the nuances of my character, my deeply held values, integrity, and grit - are fully out of your reach.

Instead, you piece together a story from my clothing, my skin color, expressed gender & posture.

Context clues and vocal tone may help you form a shallow sense of me.

And what if I admit to burdening you in a similar way?

You - an infinitely complex being - with vast potential in every choice, at every new moment.

For convenience I interpret you through sets of old stories, norms and labels.

I'm helpless but to draw analogies - connecting you to anything simpler, more familiar.

Have you noticed this?

About perception, and its flaws?

Clarity requires active work.

Self awareness, with meaningful examination/exchanges.

Because my world provides its own observations.

Narratives, and subconscious triggers - which, sometimes, only I access.

From birth ... my reality, and sense of self, are constructed through a personal, manually expanding, curious mosaic of prior assumptions, and knowledge.

In what space of possibility have I confined myself?

How stubborn is the shape of it?

And here we are in our worlds, together.

And this strange, human disconnect might be sufficient for us, for a while.

But I hope that we're doing the work.

-Billy

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