Holistic

A part of self-discovery is found in understanding the invisible capsule that envelopes every person.  I have never heard the matter addressed in sermons or lessons in church, but it is a well-known factor in various studies: oral rhetoric, psychology, and philosophy in particular, carrying into every-day understanding by the wise persons among us.  A person stands in one place, and feels (rightly) that where he or she is standing at the moment is self-independent.  The person has a right to that point for the moment, even if the physical property is owned by someone else.  The person ought to feel safe, even if for some legitimate reason (like legal ownership) the space needs to be vacated.  However, personal space is anywhere from the surface of the skin to three inches – to three feet from the actual space occupied.  That sacred space varies in depth, in influence, in identification, even in character for each person.  In a graduate university class I attended we were asked by the prof to think of who we would like to portray in a drama.  We were to say nothing, but think deeply on the character, and move about, when we did move, as we presume the character might move.  There was nothing to be dramatic or otherwise than would be ordinary in a group in our time.  He would, after fifteen minutes, inform the class who each of us was silently representing.  We had a list of eminent characters to choose from.  The members of the class were also to guess who we were representing – from the list.  I chose Hamlet, partly to test the exercise to the extreme.  I did not feel that I looked like Hamlet may have looked.  Given my physique at the time including a balding pate, I was a Polonius.  I was awed when he said that I was thinking of Hamlet, and 80% of the class had made the same conclusion about me.  I apparently had penetrated Hamlet’s space.  The others were also well identified although to lesser percentages.  Some years later an Afro-American student informed me that one reason he knew I liked him was because I did not insist on the usual space for Caucasian (American) persons in dealing with other races.  We were in an auditorium where a number of persons were on stage.  He noted to me that he had approached me, and I had not adjusted the distance that he set between us on approaching me.  Watch, he said.   Almost every person adjusted the space between them, backing away slightly, when he broke into each two-to-three feet personal space capsule.  He said, I don’t believe you have prejudice because you did not insist on the space you would be expected to use in conversation with me.  There were other references relating to touch, language, attitude (more aloof or formal than that found with their own kind).  Many experiences relate to the human invisible capsule.

Two persons marry.  One is a non-touchable (uncomfortable with physical contact, or closeness), the other a hail person, well met, who would touch an arm, put a hand on the shoulder, happy with intimacy.  Unless the matter is addressed, there will appear some non-intimacy for both persons.  The whole thing is so mysterious that it comes through even without saying or doing anything (as in the Hamlet situation above).  The matter can change with age, with a sense of willingness to change one way or the other.  Sometimes the situation changes entirely, roles being what they are.  Culture may change them, as appears to have occurred for King David and Michal.  They were deeply in love in their first years, and she saw David through very difficult times.  At last a queen she changed her orientation.  She would now have another persona, and even resist the former.  On the intimacy of David with the people and the return of the Ark, Michal despised him in her heart.  (2 Samuel 6:16)  After their argument he never approached her again.

I am disappointed to find some persons don’t grasp the invisible rampart, low or high, weak or strong, in self and others.  We miss the concept that a person is a self-universe extending to others in whatever form chosen, or fallen to, perhaps without conscious understanding.  It can be changed, even faked.  There is mystery in it.  Insight and work on the person permits a glorious magnetism.  The mystery is sometimes simply felt, not supported by any physical evidence.  It is born of the loss of that special thing in humanity that relates to self and the spirit of God.  There is self-spirit in the shield that surrounds us.  In wisdom we do well to understand it, use it for good, our own and for others.  It is a mystery related to each person.