Spiritual Crisis

“Philosophy estranges us from the familiar, not by supplying new information, but by inviting and provoking a new way of seeing.” – Michael Sandel (Political philosophy professor at Harvard University)

Three weeks ago, because of the books I had been reading, I was questioning a lot of things in my life. For example, who I was in the grand scheme of the world or if I was the person I imagined myself to be. Was I the person that my parents and education had shaped me into, like a piece of clay or a tabula rasa, or just the mere reflection of my immediate friends and acquaintances. Or perhaps, I was born to fulfill something greater than I am, in which case I would have to possess my very own personal qualities that are independent from my surroundings and past.

These thoughts soon led me to truly examine whether I believed in a higher power of any sort, after which I arrived at the question of what was real and what was simply an illusion created by others or my own mind.

Too much thinking? Possibly. Which is why on Friday, the 6th, I begged Wilfred to go on a trip with me, so I could get out of my head and immerse myself in mother nature’s beauty. He agreed.

Saturday after we both finished teaching, The Wilf and I took a short bus ride and got off little over halfway to Zamora. The point of the trip was to get out of Loja, our heads and take photos with some amazing waterfalls by the road. (blog post about the trip will be coming soon)

As Will and I talked by one of these massive waterfalls, where the water rushing by was so loud that I couldn’t hear the cars passing less than twenty meters away, I had a moment of clarity. I was gazing into the distance and heard Wilf enthusiastically admire the picturesque scenery (“Wow, look at this bovah’”), I suddenly knew the answers to all my questions I had been pondering up to that point: who I was, if I believed in a divine power, and finally what was real or fake.

I saw how intertwined everything was, plants growing on one another, with their leaves covering the ground and tendrils holding everything together, and I knew that what I was seeing was real, for nothing or nobody could have created such an elaborate and flawless subterfuge.

A.D.