A box, Desert and Unwelcome Gaze

Welcome to my pitch grey area.

Now concentrate your mind and imagine that you are in a small box.

The area that you are in is a desert that no one lives.

Do not think that you are locked up in the box but rather the area inside can be expanded infinitely.

How the area is used depends on me… so be sure to follow my instructions.

Moving along, let’s talk about attention if you will.

I do not want to lie but everyone cares about attention from others. That is probably because attention has an impact on one’s behaviors and thoughts.

Due to an instant development of the Internet, no one will disagree about the fact that we are unconsciously influenced by SNS in our daily lives; exposure to Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc is almost un-avoidable.

Because we can easily get attention and feel those attentions……

We have started to have desire to only show things that are worth to show off. One may not notice, but one wants to show that he or she is at least living a better life than the life that one is currently living in. Fake relationships, fake wealth status, and furthermore distorted personality are created as a result. People who scroll through those contents may easily feel jealous, and their self-esteem may also be lowered.

Have you ever thought about what would be the end of the Interaction between people full of lies and observers with envy? As you can see, one unconsciously decertifies one’s inner self as he or she constantly cares about attention. There may be people who uploads posts without any bad attentions but attentions with jealousy cannot be ignored.

Let’s take a look at the novel, “The Little Prince”, as an example. In the first part of the story, the writer intro-duces the pilot who gives up drawing. The pilot draws a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant, but people misinterpret as a hat and ignore. Later when he gets involved in an aircraft fall, he meets a little prince who asks the pilot to draw a sheep. As he does not want to waste his time, he draws a box and tells the little prince that the sheep that he wants is in the box.

Not knowing the pilot’s intention, the little prince is glad that the young and healthy sheep is in that box. The pilot is the only one who knows that the elephant is inside the boa constrictor, and the box is empty.

Two drawings, however, are presented differently, or rather lose their identities, according to different perspectives. The image of the boa constrictor is distorted by attentions from people excluding the creator; for the box, on the other hand, observers of the (empty) box believes that there is something in it because the creator says so.

Furthermore the box actually made complicated interests as each of observers has different idealistic image.

Then, the area hidden by the box… Is it free from those attentions?

Although people can be satisfied from modifications caused by unwanted misunderstandings and imaginations, can those changes be defined as true happiness? If we reconsider the boa constrictor that lost its power and the box, we can understand the major problem of “attention” that the author of “The Little Prince” is trying to convey. If we think about the development of the Internet, we can clearly see that the problems that arise from attentions can't be ignored.

Now, let’s get back to a little box with a desert inside.

Some of you may be confused why did I make a connection between the box that I created and attention. Some of you may have already noticed why.

box = one's outer appearance

desert = one's inner appearance

Understood?

Attention, box, and desert. These three words are critical for understanding my pieces.

Think of me as an empty shell. I do not have many things to show to others. And maybe that is why I do not know a lot of people. I have thought that I do not have something that may

attract attention from others. I would like to make this desert into a living land. And I invited you to this great journey that is lying upon us. If you are still reading this, I believe you already accepted my offer.

......Thank you.

Since when you were born, you have received a box with an infinite area inside. Everyone is given it fairly. How you decorate or arrange the area, how-ever, will not be fair as each one of you are in different circumstances; some of them that are not that friendly. The world that we are living in can be described as a one large network full of boxes that are connected by numerous strings.

Attention can be seen as a virus. It is trapped by influences from other factors. In addition, it can be transformed easily, and even can make the receiver of attention vulnerable. Sometimes it pushes one towards the track where one may not be able to come back.

If we block attentions, will we be able to pursue an unbound life? In that case, are social regulations, customs, and moral going to be still valid? Why were those created in the first place? An environment that is proper for living is created by attention, and at the same time a living man disappears into ash because of attention. So, we can never be liberated from attention? Like forever?

People are arranging their boxes with their own ways in order to live along with attention without considering the fact that a red string from their boxes linked to the other person’s box can affect that person. When one disconnects all the strings and becomes isolated…

Probably……

…………

As mentioned earlier, I will decorate my area so that I am not embarrassed by attention from others. My consciousness is telling me that certain actions are derived from my intentions. Do you think it is resulting from physical actions after feeling attentions from others? Or do you think it is a “process of reputation laundering¹”?

Everyone tries to ignore attention because they want to enjoy freedom as much as they can. Attention is like a transparent double-sided sword, and the Grim Reaper that we can never avoid.

What will we testify when we live without caring about any gaze or attention?

¹process of reputation laundering: intended instilling image you want others to perceive