When questioning the sights around me, I try not to merely look, but to see. Sometimes, I don’t know what to do with my curiosity, because often, this process of actively seeing turns into overwhelming speculation. This breeds the question – am I being too curious and inquisitive of my surroundings? Perhaps, the deeper, hidden messages that we seek out and enjoy discovering aren’t always present. Maybe, instead, different things, novel sights, and stunning moments are just, quite simply, there – existing to exist without any further philosophical purpose.
Still, while not everything we see has explicitly deep meaning, it may be this very ambiguity that provides us with the space to project our own interpretations and ideas onto things as simple as a store awning or a coffee shop floor.
Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki writes, “Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.” Suzuki’s philosophy applies to the contexts of our daily lives; ordinary sights we often stumble upon are essentially empty and superficial, offering a reservoir of possibility and space for our own individualized contemplation. This everyday existentialism, if you will, empowers our points of view. The things we see do not have to dictate our thoughts, but rather, can merely act as catalysts for our own understandings of our surroundings. As a result, we are freed of the rigidly objective and become agents of our own unique perception in a world of glistening vagueness.
Ultimately, instead of remaining tightly glued to our curiosity, we must chase it, run with it, ride with it, and let it blindly guide us to our own freely derived sentiments. Even when we don’t end up reaching any specific and profound meaning, the ambiguity behind these daily sights and signs urges us to appreciate their emptiness, and to realize that not everything has to be deeply reflective and meaningful. Some things can just be. There is meaning in everything, even that which is just pleasant to look at, simply beautiful for the sake of being beautiful, and inexplicably appealing to our raw emotions, rather than our intellectual minds.
Coffee Shop: 29 Union Square W, New York, NY 10003
Aesop: 77 Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10014
