Conceal
"I am indeed, in a certain sense a Circle," replied the Voice, "and a more perfect Circle than any in Flatland; but to speak more accurately, I am many Circles in one." -Flatland
The next few essays will be loosely related to the 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. I will avoid the more mathematical and technical themes Reverend Abbott devotes half the story to, and omit all of the satirical sexism. The references chosen will be to expand on the principles of awareness he eludes to; especially in the last third of the story.
The title of this essay is not to reverse course on the revealing mentioned in my previous post. Instead, it is an attempt to confirm the relationship between the two. That when something is revealed to me, about myself or another or the world, it suggests to me the prior concealment that I had been living next to all along. As we will later find with the main character Square in Flatland, what is realized through a revelation is less a manifestation of that reality and more an awareness of an already existing reality. I think this distinction is important. Sometimes, even most of the time, we see the explainable parts of the days or ourselves as our primary identity or reference point. Or, sadder still, as the only aspect of who we are or what we encounter. But perhaps, if we look backwards through the day or through our life the opposite may in fact be true. That the concealed stories or truths are the deeper source of who I am or where I am or even when I am.
Before this essay turns too abstract or psychological, I want to share a brief story about something my seven-year-old daughter said many months ago. It was near bedtime and we were talking about Darkness (Concealment’s main mode of transportation), including some of the writing I had been doing on the topic at the time. During this conversation she said the following: “Being in pitch-black dark is awkward. Because you can’t tell if your eyes are open or closed, because it all looks the same. So you have to feel if they are open or closed.”
That line “you have to feel”, along with the images in Flatland, will act as the key signature for my Summer thoughts on the Visible and the Invisible. That when our ability to see is taken away it does not mean that what is present is taken away. We still maintain the ability to perceive and to feel what is around us and what is inside us in other ways besides what is comfortable or explainable.
So today, I invite you to befriend the concealed corridors that you are unknowingly walking by. Today I am asking you to see them not as spiteful secret keepers, but as graceful guardians of that which you do not need to know yet. Today you can feel free to leave your eyes open or closed and leave what’s awkward behind, confidently knowing that whether revealed or concealed another perception awaits.