CuppaGemma

Sometimes the understanding we have about a person becomes still and unchangeable, like a photographic image. The character cannot move, the settings cannot change. It is locked in one old moment.  “Hold it right there!”

The problem, of course, is that the person you have carefully conjured in your image, does not actually exist. And were you to speak with them outside of that isolated memory you would find gradation, layers.  Even inconsistencies.

How do we resolve this- that the image we have is not the same as the person who is now standing there? It can be difficult to fully realize how subjective and selective our memory is.

We may long for them to be who we supposed they were.  And they may stand there bemused at the masks and mummy caskets to which they are to fit themselves into.

That pulls on the gears of a relationship. The modern man will refuse to climb into the casket, abhor the mask and walk away. The modern woman might see it as a pyre, a funerary from her past in need of a match.

For some the image solidifies and may not be updated. The pulley snaps, the relationship ends with a projectile discharge of one person into the past, the other into the future.

There is another option… image can become liquid pieces, something that can be reassembled. The conversations begin and people are not limited to sound bytes.