mosaic humans
I am currently in the midst of my fourth semester examinations, which mark the completion of two-thirds of my academic degree. After beating my head over abstract algebra and analysis theories, I think I have the right to resort to letters for a bit over numbers. (The funny thing is the math I’m studying has no numbers but only alphabets and alphas and gammas and betas. All mysterious shapes except those that resemble numbers. How I long to see numbers!)
As the years progress and we move away from home in order to seek and build a life for ourselves, I feel only then are we able to assess the actual impact of our upbringing and surroundings. How we are almost entirely manufactured and originality happens to be a small constituent of our being. I was recently in my hometown to judge a conference wherein juniors from my school and others were present as anonymous participants.
As soon as one particular girl began her speech, I snapped my head towards her instantly. It was, as if I knew on an instinctual level, that she was from my school. Two days later after the conference, I checked the participant list and turns out my observation was bang on. Sometimes we know things — our gut whispers them to us but we do not pay it enough heed as we do not have a logical list of reasons to point out why something seems off.
Or for that matter, we can’t tell when something seems right either. I remember, about a few months back when I entered an acquaintance and I just felt it would be an enduring friendship. There was no reason to believe so, it is just something I felt and almost nine months later I can confirm it has transformed into one of those relationships that I can rely on with my eyes shut. Only now that I analyze the past can I spot extremely obvious signs of early affection and genuine caring that I missed overtly at that time because they were so subtle, yet were grasped accurately by my instincts.
The way instincts function thus, is marvelous and beyond complete conscious comprehension — but I digress. The point being made is, our surroundings majorly shape us the same way. Institutions create patterns and those patterns are replicated year after year, although those replications manifest themselves in various ways. Example: Ivy League colleges produce leaders in the field of business, entrepreneurship, sports, acting, research, politics etc. The fields are diverse yet the pattern of “excellence” remains constant.
So if your household had a pattern, your school had a pattern, your college, your city — everything had a “pattern” or an “archetype” or more precisely, a “stereotype” associated with it. Then essentially, each of us is a different amalgamation of many stereotypes. This overlapping and the quantity in which each archetype persists is what makes us unique.
Each shared pattern renders identity to a community. Your nationality is a pattern, your religion, your race, your language — these are all patterns that intersect to construct individuals. What does that make us? Mosaic humans. I like that idea.
Patterns are replicated which is why I think we can compartmentalize “types” of people through these archetypes, not entirely, but definitely in segments. If a mosaic screams to me “introvert, quiet, attention-seeking” or “extroverted, curious, street smart” I will instinctively compare this mosaic with the other people that I have seen the same pattern or tendency in. This is how we can, although yes a little unscientifically but nevertheless, make predictions. If a person with so and so traits ended up like this, how will another person with same traits end up? Not very far in my experience.
These comparisons again occur on an instinctual level, as they identify patterns that are not apparent to the eye. I fully concede that these comparisons may be unfair, also sometimes inaccurate but that does not dismiss the fact that we are capable of processing such complex information at a lightning speed.
Abstract data that has no numbers assigned to it, is gauged, recorded, stored and similar patterns are scouted for, retrieved from our repository of the millions of people we know and hear of and then comparison, followed by a prediction is made. This prediction is surprisingly also quickly communicated to us in the form of a sensation that makes our heart flutter or leaves our insides feeling queasy.
Our instincts tell us what we don’t know or perhaps, do not even possess the capability to know. And my instincts seem to be telling me that although I have been looming over abstract algebra for a couple of days now, wondering what even is the point of it, may be it does have a point. Exercise after exercise of proving how things that are evidently different are actually the same, trying to quantify what clearly cannot be measured has made me think may be everything can be measured. Even the things we do not see.
Feel free to reach out to me, I’ll be here studying for my impending examinations, or rather trying to study for them. Until next time, please love yourself and be in awe of miracle of the human capability :)
