A Multicultural Perspective of Love
Integration.
A human tries his best to set himself free from the society and its laws.
Instead why not to create a liberal society?
A human desperately seeks a soul mate to then flee the confines of a relationship.
Instead why not to build a bond you will want to belong to?
This is how I normally start a conversation with a passer-by these days.
“You have to go straight to the point”, I recall an advice of my career coach.
We sit in a small room of a corporate high building. I escaped my office for an hour session to draw a Balance Wheel of my project “Love in One Word”. We will have five meetings over two months with Rebecca, where she will provide me with an opportunity to reflect and set a plan of my idea — from inception to completion.
“What is the fundamental part of your concept?”, she is pointing me to the right direction.
“To collect words and connect with people”, I exclaim.
And at 5pm, upon finishing my work, I’ll find myself walking to the nearest stationery shop to get a notebook.
Of course, that is not how it had begun. But that’s how it had acquired a concrete form. That’s how I shifted from a pure fantasy in my head to a noticeable action in the real world.
My project is called “Love in One Word” and enquires into human emotions and feelings when it comes to love and romantic relationship. The subject is universal and essentially, about us — people.
I have been cultivating my idea for about a year by now. Since then I have been asking people of a different culture and age the same question. They were my relatives, friends and acquaintances, to start with. Then, I questioned someone new who I’d have a conversation with at a coffee shop, social gathering, house party or even work place. Moreover, a couple of times I had set an event on location: in London and Sydney.
Sometimes people would come up with a word straight away. Otherwise, it struck them by surprise and they’d admit they had never thought about it seriously before. Sometimes those words would repeat each other, although carry a distinctive voice of an individual. On occasion, they’d come up with a definition and then a few weeks later, contact me with another word, which appeared a way more complex than the previous one. They would say I had planted a seed in their mind.
In my case, it was the city of joy, oblivion, power and chances (as I once wrote in my poem about London) that influenced my mind and soul. I lived in the British capital for eight years; certainly, where else could I have been better exposed to the pool of nationalities if not there?!I am originally from Ukraine — born and raised and believe I preserve some of the Ukrainian traditions. Yet I travelled to more than a few destinations. Regardless how big or small they are — each place had imprinted its own spirit in my heart. However, I get lost — what is my true origin, where is my home, where do I belong to? Whenever I find myself in a foreign land, I will feel different.
The last summer month I spent in Kiev. Somehow, it seemed contrasting to me: the blend of new and old. Freedom and imprisonment. I missed something in this city — I missed clarity. I was incapable to fit in, because I had already changed. Nevertheless, I felt good here. I was safe as if confident: the energy of my homeland would protect me.
How to connect to your own culture when you have been away for what seems the lifetime? We fly off to explore distant shores and let aliens enter into our souls. And we seem happy, we are capable to adjust anywhere in the world. We are the new generation — children of a third culture, they call us global!
But what about our feelings: how do they evolve and do we even notice a transition? I always attempted to ask that simple question about love while on a voyage. I am interested in the mix of race, religion and belief. I wonder how a one’s background impacts on values of love, relationship, family. My “interviewees” tend to be cosmopolitan — urban citizens of a hectic city. More often than not — they are single. And I can tell you the following. I observe an incredible thing: whatever cultural difference we may have — it disappears when we turn to talk about love. In fact, we become quite similar in such a moment.
I am writing a book of stories based on this project. I hope many people worldwide will express their point of view.
Because love is diverse.
