Developing a Personal Vocabulary of Other-Visions
By transforming the way you see others, you can transform how you are moved to interact, and so make a practical difference in the reality being co-created.
When a little girl says “I am a princess”, there are a number of common responses. If you are the parent, and you are enjoying the company of your child at home, it may be a delightful opportunity for imagination play. If you are a school-teacher, and one child is saying it to another child who doesn’t agree, it may be an obnoxious attempt four-year-old’s power play. We view imagining oneself in a role in the full-embodied way that young children may, as a dual-edged sword, virtuous or not according to context.
In the case of delightful imagination play, we may think of the child’s immersion in the role as an aide in developing bearing, grace, poise, and leadership. But let’s flip the perspective: as a parent, seeing your child as a princess creates an interactive relationship where the parental role-playing relates to the child in a non-ordinary way, as someone who already has bearing, grace, poise, and leadership. This relational interaction creates a space in which the child can try on completing the intertwined pattern, and so grow into it.
We recognize that envisioning a child in a role has the potential to create the relational field in which that role is engaged in and grown into. This can happen between any two people, and can transform in a moment.
Part of the art of “envisioning others to invite them into a reality field” is that the envisioning has to represent practical possibilities for the potentials of the person. Having a large vocabulary of ways to envision people means that you don’t just go around envisioning people as princesses! That would be contextually inappropriate for many situations…
The vocabulary of minor deities around the world are one helpful resource of visionary seeing. The pantheon of ancient Greek gods is numerous, for example, from mountain nymphs to gods of vegetation, as is the pantheon of Chinese, Indian and Tibetan gods. Africa has a rich pantheon of folktale characters, as does Native American culture.
The resources are there; to actually be able to see someone in their visionary form takes engagement with a way of seeing. A personal vocabulary of other-visions is ultimately required, as each way of seeing is like learning a piece of classical music, a skill that takes time, practice, and aesthetic participation to polish.
When my wife is angry, I like to see her as a wrathful, wise, yet trickster god. In that disposition I can relate to her mood, and the possible wisdom within it, without taking her point-of-view as inherently correct…it might be a trick! Or might not be.
By transforming the way you see others, you can transform how you are moved to interact, and so make a practical difference in the reality being co-created.