Choosing a Gift

It's interesting reading about people's various Metaphysical Clubs that they have discussed in their posts. I have my own Metaphysical Club, as well. The group is rather interesting and comprised of an odd assortment of personalities. A Neo-Platonist, a Sophist, a Realist, an Idealist, and an Existentialist... walk into a bar?

Well, the breakdown may not be exactly like that, but there are several people who have core philosophies that are in complete opposition to each other. We have been friends for around 13 years. From low moments (unexpected deaths and emergency surgeries) to high moments (graduations, weddings, and births) we have shared a great deal. How we came together is a tangle of moments and intersections that were serendipitous at points. Janna said, in her post, "I’m still fumbling with who should be in my full metaphysical club," made me start thinking about how these groups form.

Sometimes, like in our classes, we get thrown together. Some of us in this class may keep in touch, and we may not. We may be able to add to our Metaphysical Clubs, or even create new ones, but how do we make those initial moves? If we knew more about each other, we may not want to be within each others' clubs, but that may defeat the purpose. How do we get placed into situations where we can meet people that will push us on a variety of levels (hopefully from a variety of directions) to improve ourselves, at least as we each see improvement.

As Genevieve noted in her rather heartfelt post, we must, like her, stay "Fluid, always moving, always shifting, forever negotiating and re-imaging my story." If we become too rigid, too certain of our place in the universe, we become static, stagnate, and ultimately lose the ability to have conversations with those outside of our own Clubs.

Dr. Kells' question helps to pull some of these ideas together:

"A gift that has the power to change us awakens a part of the soul. Be we cannot receive the gift until we can meet it as its equal. We therefore submit ourselves to the labor of becoming like the gift" (The Gift p. 51).

My question for next week is: "If the metaphysical club is the intellectual/spiritual space or context of the circulation of the gift, what then is the gift?"
Our Clubs help to keep the conversations going when so many people seek simply to answer their own question with finality and be done. Too many people to not put more questions out into the world; they find an answer that rings true for them and are satisfied with this. The gift, if ever there was one, is the ability to fly in the face of certitude and add more questions to the conversations, both private and public, and challenge beliefs through discourse.

Afterall, how can anyone be certain of their answers when they haven't experienced all there is to experience, and seen reality from all the different angles--fairly impossible for our limited human existence which is all we have. There is always a new Fig out there to taste.