Sunday 9 August 2009

U

An image, alone, is nothing. Light reflected on different objects, on different materials, that absorb different parts of the rainbow each.

But when this same light crosses our pupils to be projected, upside down, on our retina, there begins the journey of interpretation, the search for meaning. And this is a journey that happens independently in our heads and hence it is something absolutely personal and subjective.

On the long way between the photosensitive cells deep down in our eyes and the formation of a picture, of a memory, of a remembrance in our mind, nerve impulses must travel at lightning speed across thousands of milions of neural connections that are arranged the way they are because this is precisely what makes us how we are, what makes us who we are, and not somebody else.

The image, those thousands of electrical signals that travel across our neurons, takes form in our minds through a process whose complexity we only begin to grasp. This image, or the model of it that exists in our neurons, is checked against hundreds of thousands of other shapes, colours, textures, that we have been linking throughout our lives to feelings, emotions, remembrances, ... meanings. And even though these meanings have a lot to do with our culture, they still are something unique and personal for each individual.

U01

An illuminated blue cube on top of a pole with a white U letter would mean, on every German-speaking country, something as trivial as a subway station (in German, U-Bahn, abbreviation for Untergrundbahn, lit. "underground railway"). In my present situation, on the shores of the Mediterranean, in the city that welcomed me as I was 17 years old, the picture of such a cube has a very different meaning. This U indicates here an ambulance entrance to the hospital where I am writing this post from.

U02

Today this U means for me the battle that I have just witnessed. A battle fought against those evil cells that, at random, out of pure egoism, decide to turn immortal.

Luckily, a battle that has been won.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Wer immer die Schlacht zu schlagen bzw.zu gewinnen hatte,Du oder Dir jemand nahe stehender,es freut mich dass sie gewonnen wurde.Meine Besten Wuensche LG.G

tonicito said...

Gitta said...
Whoever had to take that battle, you or a close one, I'm happy to learn that it has been won. My best wishes. LG.G


Gitta, many thanks for your support! It wasn't me, but someone really close, back home. LG. T.

Unknown said...

Happy it wasn`t You.Still it is never on the easy part of life to have to deal with problems with the eyes. Not in young age or in old. Best greetings G.