Continuing on the topic of invisible things, I’m adding more words to my list of invisibles: this week they are relationship and culture. And how about intelligence and imagination? How about thought? About the last three – it is clear that science has shown that when intelligence, imagination, and thought are at work, there are neurons and/or other molecules working in the brain, electrical signals being sent and received and other such things. (pardon the language – I’m no scientist). However, I consider it obvious that there is more to them than that. When sharing a thought or a picture or idea (another invisible thing) of one’s imagination, the person doesn’t talk about neurons and active sections of his brain, but uses words (yet another invisible) to describe something, maybe attitude (invisible thing) or emotion (invisible thing). Again, I understand it takes neurons and electrical signals and stuff like that for the thoughts (or emotions) to exist, but the thoughts are not the neurons. It isn’t a perfect comparison, but I guess it is like a car – it takes fuel of some sort to run a car, but a car isn’t the fuel, a car is a means of transportation, and fuel is one of the things that make it what it is.
Let’s go back to the first two invisibles: relationship and culture. There is not a set of molecules that I can point to and say “This is a relationship; this is a culture.” Relationship is the state of being connected, and in human interpersonal relationships that is expressed in actions and words. Even in family relationships, same DNA isn’t necessary for a mother-child relationship in case of adoption. Culture is very widely defined, but mostly it has to do with worldview – what a person or a group of people consider true, including experiences and relationships, and the ways that worldview is communicated or acted out in daily life. A fact I want to point out here is that, like style (invisible thing), relationship and culture are relatively new concepts. The Merriam-Webster dates the first use of the word relationship to 1741. It places culture in the 15th century meaning cultivated land. According to Wikipedia, it wasn’t until the 18th and 19th centuries that “culture” appeared in it’s current use.
And why that is important, I am too sleepy to talk about now. So it will have to be next time.
Good night, dear reader!
Art and the Invisible 