I'm fascinated by words that concurrently hold multiple, occasionally contrary definitions. Rather than produce discord, the intersection of meanings can deepen understanding, and resonate more authentically in the tricky description of big, multifaceted scenarios or emotions.* The themes of this coursework in Zanzibar are meant to be framed through the lenses of resilience and transformation. Resilience is one of these wonderfully complex terms, as it may mean flexibility, strength, or that rare combination of both (think: Mikhail Baryshnikov.) In surveying the environmental, political, and cultural influences on Zanzibari life, I hope to discover where flexibility has allowed for the appropriation of change, where strength has held steadfast against it, and what unique harmony between the two has emerged.
Transformation, then, is the response to and process through which these changes continue to occur. Adaptation and metamorphosis are the biological analogs, though these terms may be too passive to reflect on choice, and the human element. Are the changes to a culture/place/people as linear and irreversible as the caterpillar becoming the butterfly, or cyclical and constant as the shifting states of matter?
Finally, while the connotations of each of these terms creep toward the positive, neither cries out a value judgement, and I aspire to a similarly objective approach over the coming weeks.
*One of my favorite examples is the word abandon, which used as a verb means to renounce, but used as a noun conjures an irrational desire to hold something for eternity. When used to describe love and loss, the bittersweet ache of a doomed affair, I love the richness of both definitions intertwining.
No comments:
Post a Comment