RP3: Elsewhere Somewhere Nowhere

Silence. With no vocalization we join and witness spaces, times, and beings existing in elsewheres that have been labeled as nowheres by so many somewheres. To be more specific to my expereince, they are elsewhere I was told to never stand in and to avoid them and the people who exist there in at all costs. While simultaneously staying true to the golden rule: love and have compassion for them but never take them into my heart or home. If I ever step foot into such an elsewhere I would be nowhere and no one. This is a concept I am still playing with, taking it apart and putting it together in a new way.

Picture Lego blocks that have been put together and with a certain instructions in mind. Then one day it fell from the shelf and broke. Now I am trying to put it back together into the same figure it was before but now, its old form is no longer looking right on the shelf. I’m deciding if I need to rearrange the pieces I have or add new ones, but I am sure the figure the blocks once made is no longer the one I want on my shelf.

After peering into several elsewhere which ranged from the J-Geeks of New Zealand, to the origin story of Mars, I realized how easily they can be ignored and considered with in one somewhere but not as the mainstream. In other words, elsewheres are often combined and seen as the “other “side of the coin. The binary of us and them I realized is how my mind is wired. While watch and listening to these elsewhere I kept thinking this is right that is wrong. That is them and this is me or us or the people who are like me. I became conscious of this way of thinking and began to apply Rabasa’s thoughts on “Elsewheres” as I reflected on my thoughts and I came to the following conclusion:

My somewhere is not as inclusive as I think it is, neither should it be more inclusive. Let me explain. I am allowed to have my somewhere, but so is everyone else. This means I should not try including and adopting other somewheres to be a part of mine, or making them fit here or there. In doing so I am changing and altering what it is. When in reality it is best to accept and see they are not and should not be in my somewhere and that is okay. The point is the world is not a coin but something that has more sides than a dodecahedron.