Dialogues are interesting.
But polylogues are inspiring.
Why have a discourse between two or more people when you could have a conversation with the world of art, nature, people (past, present, imagined or real), and animals?
A polylogue (my made-up ad-hoc word) is bigger, wider and broader than a dialogue. It is not limited by the confines of “accepted reality.” It is more colorful, complex and playful. More mind-bending, soul-opening and heart-grabbing. It is what we’ve been having these past few chapters—conversations with situations, images, words and people.
A polylogue (my made-up ad-hoc word) is bigger, wider and broader than a dialogue. It is not limited by the confines of “accepted reality.” It is more colorful, complex and playful. More mind-bending, soul-opening and heart-grabbing. It is what we’ve been having these past few chapters—conversations with situations, images, words and people.
There is one common denominator. Each conversation begins and ends in curiosity. It is not interested in telling, but rather asking.
Inside every polylogue exists the question ‘y.’ Why do we believe that? Why do we sometimes sabotage ourselves? Why are we here? Why do we care? Why do we not? Why is death so final and learning so circular? Why are holidays so complicated?
The questions vary. The answer is the same. Conversations. Internal and external.
With people, music, art, plants, spirits, god, water, angels, past selves. The more varied our conversations, the more we engage the mystery, the odyssey, the adventure and the more well-rounded, empathetic and understanding we become.
In an interview on NPR, late Irish poet John O’Donahue asked, “When is the last time that you had a great conversation, a conversation which wasn’t just two intersecting monologues…But when had you last a great conversation, in which you overheard yourself saying things that you never knew you knew, heard yourself receiving from somebody words that absolutely found places within you that you thought you had lost and a sense of an event of a conversation that brought the two of you on to a different plane…a conversation that continued to sing in your mind for weeks afterward…I’ve had some of them recently, and it’s just absolutely amazing, like, as we would say at home, they are food and drink for the soul.”
In an interview on NPR, late Irish poet John O’Donahue asked, “When is the last time that you had a great conversation, a conversation which wasn’t just two intersecting monologues…But when had you last a great conversation, in which you overheard yourself saying things that you never knew you knew, heard yourself receiving from somebody words that absolutely found places within you that you thought you had lost and a sense of an event of a conversation that brought the two of you on to a different plane…a conversation that continued to sing in your mind for weeks afterward…I’ve had some of them recently, and it’s just absolutely amazing, like, as we would say at home, they are food and drink for the soul.”
Conversation, the right kind, feeds us, sustains us, and inspires us. It fills us with grace and makes us feel grateful to be alive. It nourishes our souls.
