9:16am October 2, 2010

Response to the quote

And throughout my life, I’ve been told that my experiences of the world are not only unimportant, but shameful. Something disturbing, embarrassing, definitely to be hidden behind closed doors. Once, in a rare moment where I tried to describe to a professional what it felt like to live my life, he told me, “I used to be interested in phenomenology, that kind of stuff. But I eventually realized it was meaningless.” Another professional lamented the possibility that I might be introspective, said it was dangerous for people like me to explore our own experiences without professional guidance. So I learned that my direct experience of the world was meaningless and only belonged being discussed hidden behind fancy and incomprehensible terms like “phenomenology”, as well as being potentially dangerous and unseemly.

Even though I began long ago to throw off such ideas, and described many of my experiences in public, I still somehow held onto some small part of the idea that discussing these things was wrong. Because it wasn’t until I started this tumblr that I became able to discuss my day-to-day experiences as they happen, and not be terrified of doing this.

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