One

IMGP2260.JPG, originally uploaded by jcf. 

Really.  Just one.

The post with the contents of the talk is turning out rather long (ca. 3’000 words) and it will follow here (blog post available only by invitation).

About one. There is just one culture, there is just one me. There is no better half to me. This is it.

The other whom some might want to label as my better half is also another whole one. We are independent, we are autonomous, and we are connected. We relate to each other. One plus one is still one in this relational algebra of mine. Yet that other, the third one, is much more than a sum. To sum people up, or divide them, is a much too limited operation.

He shares no privileged information with me. Intimacy is after all, just the ability to be oneself, to be authentically one. Really, just one. You and me – we – are ourselves be it in private, be it in public.

I am a deeply private person, that is whom you experience when we are face to face, be it in public, be it in private.

But we are more than just that, more than a few words, more than the sum of a few parts. We also play roles, we act, we play games, we hide, we pose, we deceive, we laugh, we cry, and we put on masks.

I like to tell stories and find myself bound to the interface of fiction and nonfiction.