Be Temporarily Obsessed
Flex It Friday \\ 05
Welcome to Flex It Fridays.
Here you’ll find a space for the beautiful, the strange, the delightful and weird. Fridays mean rest, party, or escape from the routine, but especially for attending to far-off whispers we might otherwise miss. Enjoy!
Today’s Flex is a love letter to ephemeral enthusiasms, momentary manias, and fleeting fascinations. I recently encountered this lovely post by Ankita Shah on Instagram, and was reminded of all the temporary obsessions that I’ve met on my own journey thus far.
Shah’s gentle observations speak to the experience of resonance that Hartmut Rosa calls the “basic mode of vibrant human existence,” in which we encounter and respond to the world, rather than attempt to control it at every point. Resonance, for Rosa, means relationship: we find ourselves affected by this surprising, energizing, transformative rendezvous with a stranger who, as it happens, is only an old friend in a new guise. Resonance, temporary obsessions…it feels a bit like falling in love.
Shah points out that, even though we may leave (a great many) obsessions half-finished and languishing, this doesn’t mean we’re disloyal to them. Rather, they are “imprints of our curiosity, evidence that we once let ourselves fall in love deeply with something new and wildly outside of our comfort zone.” And falling in love, even if momentary, is never wasted.
For love calls us into the world. It reveals our hope to bridge the gulf between solitudes. Love exposes the soft heart of our longing, inviting the deep, true communication that leads to mutual knowing and being known. The pursuit of such love reminds us of all we’ve yet to discover: about the world, about others, and especially about ourselves.
May all of our encounters with such temporary obsessions resonate and remind us of our relationship with this great wide world and its myriad wonders.
Let’s be hopeful, creative, and wise—together.
Shalom,
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