The other evening on my walk I realized something - my deep need to always know 'where I am' both in space and time. I hate feeling lost, losing my centre of gravity, my pin to a place. Why is that?
I need to define and describe to myself, continually, where I am and where am I going. I believe we as humans have this primal urge to know our bearing with precision. We need to find our location in reference to every other thing in the world. From primitive times man has looked at the stars and tried to determine his position in respect to them, and how the placement of stars affect our fortunes. The sun, the moon, the winds, the horizon all have been used to understand where we stand, and what that means.
We admire quotes about 'getting lost' and 'wandering,' but the truth first and foremost is that we want to spot our situation both physically and emotionally in this world. We relate to others with reference to where we are placed as opposed to them, which city? country? locale? area? Proximity in space is essential for close relationships, we are familiar with the difficulties in 'long-distance relationships' and 'out of sight, out of my mind' situations.
Our position, physical, mental and emotional, is essential in raising children (can't be done from far away,) in keeping house, our jobs and so on. But what's interesting is that at all times our internal compass keeps aligning us to where we are, it keeps telling us our location and the minute we enter into an unfamiliar vicinity, it warns and alarms us.
We know ourselves through our surroundings and routines, unseen places, unplanned dislocation and even planned dislocation disrupts us because it puts us opposite what's 'strange' and 'different.'
Even emotionally we want to know where we 'stand' vis a vis other people in our lives. Is my partner as in love with me as I am with him? Am I as important to my children as they are to me? Am I needed at my job? Am I relevant to my friends? are questions that we are continually asking ourselves in an internal dialogue.
Why are these dimensions so important to us? what do they do for us? Our place in history, our position in the world as a citizen, our situation in our immediate world orients us to our surroundings, this information acts a gravitational pull holding us firm in our individual spots.
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