Crowded

There is a flurry within when we find ourselves in crowds. Either by choice on dates set months ahead of time, in moments of urgency or mass rage, and even in daily transit we can be filled with a spread of emotions and thoughts. Bouncing around our minds and flowing across our felt bodies, we are left holding moments long after their initial arousal once solitude has found us again. When we view our lives it is often a focus on the activities we understand are being enjoyed or engaged in. Any number of people can join in activities in theory ranging from huge groups and crowds with tens of thousands of people to individual activities.

When we view ourselves in these new masses some minds might wonder what outside of our direct understanding brought us into these moments? How do the emotions we feel or actions we take connect us to moments yet seen?

Moments

Much of today's sociological models focus on the individual guided self, as in individual rational actors deciding what actions to take or refrain from taking. Let us explore the possibility of a world connected through distance to others. Here others can be other people, animals, or plants, generally, other living organisms. When we find ourselves around others we control what we are able to and allow others to do the same with themselves. Our motive selves are the canvas for us to paint will. When we are in crowds much comes together both measurably in sounds and visuals from the actions taken by the masses as well as subconsciously in the thoughts prompted by the memory before it is realized when we anticipate the event as well as in how we think broadly in the time and moments that follow.

One definition of body is "to give material form to something abstract". Individuals fit this definition as we live and embody our names and spirits through values demonstrated. In thinking of what groups and crowds body we find difficulty. They are ephemeral and do not hold together the same ways as the bodies that hold our individual expressive selves. What names would crowds have? That is as difficult a question to consider as what names crows and slugs would give each other. With no knowledge or frame to understand the abstractions they embody our impositions of understanding too would diverge or speak to our unknown biases.

Close

Exploring the concept of form through proximity can reshape our understanding of the physical world we move through. How we hold moments might be a relic of necessity rather than lucid truth. What would it mean if each time you gathered with another you shared an abstract yet named self with them? Each new meeting would represent a new self held by the connection or conversation shared. Moments have no need of names. They find us as our held forms need them, guiding or stumbling us on our journeys. Malicious moments could move through us or define periods throughout our lives without our knowing we ever got wrapped up in them.

The others, of all types, we find ourselves around can speak to the truths demonstrated and moments contacted. What comes with a proximal understanding of the bodies made in moments shared? What are the emotions of a crowd viewing blood sports in the stone Colosseums or modern ones of steel and concrete watching striking contests or padded bodies gliding across ice being slammed up against clear walls? What of a crowd locked in victorious elation in well lit city streets and dim alleys? Would those moments hold the same names across generations within a peoples? Would the variation throughout during the shared moment based on individuals and settings change the bodied abstract?

Even stranger is the understanding of the end of time here. What would a predator unknowingly elicit in finding a meal? The body created could be a shared pain or stress. Yet higher meaning could rest in those acts as well with prey freed from a form held for a lifetime, the continuation holding only in the ones given the energy to continue forward. With each choice we make we find new bodies to join in times yet seen. Draw closer to your joys and the crowds that find you will fill you with deep positive energy for the journeys to follow.