07 Nov On the tip of the rabbit fur
Having a baby is such a joy! A little new-found anxiety and tiredness comes along, though completely overshadowed by this little human being growing infront of me. I love watching my son exploring his surroundings, and I find it so remarkable how he figure out his embodied self in relation to what surrounds him.
Jostein Gaarder, norwegian author and philosopher, wrote in ‘Sophies world’ that the universe is like a huge rabbit. In this analogy, grown-ups percieve reality from the rabbits body, where its warm, familiar and safe. Newborns and babies are all the way on the tip of the rabbit fur, kinda staring universe in the eye, having direct experience with the moment. And as babies turn into toddlers, to children and teenagers, they go further away from the tip, closer to the rabbits body. Then, as adulthood hit us, conditioned by learning, we find our comfortable spot, deep down in the rabbit fur. Not asking so many questions anymore, confident we have organized and understood reality. Starting to take things for granted we seem to loose interest of observing the mereness of things, instead we are busy categorizing it into our self-constructed worldview.
Ok, before I drift into a complete paradox of a philosphic exploration, I’ll stop at this for now.
Coming back to what I started with; observing my son explore the world, I find it remarkable with his expressions and emotional states. Already quite a range of them, while he is only 5 months old. As he look at the floor, the fabric of a curtain, watching the tree outside the window, its branches moving with the wind; he expresses joy, being surprised or intrigued, excited or flabergasted. And in a way I wish I could feel the same way; so mindful and connected, being in direct contact with the experience.
Why does curiosity fade? Does the ability to stay observant fade on the cost of us making reality predictable, by categorization through conditioning? And why do we feel the need to “find ourselves”? Did we get lost in the process of being born to adulthood, when we crawled deeper into the comfort of the rabbit fur, avoiding confrontation with reality?
