Extend that Experience
The Phrasing and Ideas Series — Entry 7
The Phrasing and Ideas series is about elaborating on the thousand-plus entries I’ve collected in a document by the same name. These entries have been scavenged over several years through plenty of different situations and mediums. Every article visits one of the entries and gives it additional context, from where it was taken from, what it means to me, who I was when I found it, how it has grown with me over time, etc. For more information on the ‘Phasing and Ideas’ series, you can click below.
Origins
This is a phrase I found while watching the making-of documentary/short film of Oh Wonder’s second LP Ultralife. One of the band members Josephine uses the term as she’s describing her inspirations for making different songs on the record, how they made her feel, and how as an artist you want to extend that experience to other people. She later goes on to remark you can’t just behave, and live and think and interact with the world in isolation, which is another phrase that resonated with me, and that I also have written into the Phrasing and Ideas original document.
On Gatekeeping, Part 1
The phrase to me conjures a reminder to share things that evoked significant feelings in me with other people. Sometimes I have the tendency to gatekeep things that I experience to myself — more likely than not it’s my default state because I feel the sum total of my experiences ultimately are what make me the unique and novel human being that I am. But this phrase keeps a constant reminder that it is a joy to be able to take in the world all around us, and that such a joy can be shared with others.
Now, the things that resonate with me won’t necessarily resonate universally. Some things miss the mark or fail to meet the moment with others, and that’s okay. Ultimately, one can argue it is the thought, and subsequent action that counts, not always the result. However, this phrase can also raise one’s consciousness to recognize such things exist in the world that can make an individual experience strong, meaningful emotions. While the same stimuli might not always emit the same strong feelings from others that it does me, I know we all ultimately have the capacity to feel the strong feelings I felt from the original stimuli, and thus the tasks now becomes a pursuit towards finding ways to evoke those same meaningful emotions I experienced all others in my life. To try and find that proper stimuli that allows us all to feel as meaningfully as I felt… to extend that experience.
This is what I suppose Josephine was getting at with the artist’s journey. To create things that extend the experience of meaningful emotions to an audience. Her later remark that I wrote about earlier: you can’t just behave, and live and think and interact with the world in isolation I believe clearly reinforces this. Experiencing the world alone and gatekeeping all that it reveals to you is ultimately a waste — those lessons, those emotions, those memories… they all ultimately die with you. And while not everything is meant to be shared, things that were significant in some way to you, might be significant to another in a way that makes them laugh, makes them cry, makes them feel joy, or somehow helps them in the pursuit to self-actualize.
To share is to invite another to partake in the profoundness you had extended to you once before. Through whatever medium. And ultimately, one of the great facets of this life is not that it is meant to be shared, but that it can be shared.
On Gatekeeping Part 2, Uniqueness, and Authenticity
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still guilty of keeping significant experiences to myself to varying degrees from time to time. It’s an ongoing process to not gatekeep these things. In fact, I used to gatekeep information so much that I would tell those close to me that I saw it as the dragon Smaug hoarding all that gold and treasure beneath the Lonely Mountain. I felt that information made me who I was — made me unique… and that sharing it would ultimately mean giving up some elements of my uniqueness. I literally wrote all of these things in the original Phrasing and Ideas Series Takeoff Article.
That isn’t the case, however, it was never the case. Because it’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take things to. You’re welcome to borrow, explore, and draw inspiration from the broad swaths of matter that come with engaging with the world… but ultimately, two people will never have the same interpretation to their sum totaled experiences. It’s in those distinct interpretations that uniqueness resides.
No matter how similar the elements of life you experience are from other people, your sum interpretation to it all will always be uniquely yours. In understanding this, I learned to correct my views from earlier: I was not my sum total of experiences, I was my sum total of interpretations to my experiences.
Concluding Remarks
We’ve gone on some tangents here, but understand the hoarding of information to oneself is to live and die a tragic tale. While sometimes, isolation can be a gift, interacting with the world can and is meant to be shared. Sharing experiences with others and having them share theirs too ultimately give us both more fertile grounds to take these significant things to newer heights, to build off of them through interpretation (and inspiration); a feed-forward loop that passes it on forever.
And we’re all better people because of it.
To live and interact with the world in isolation is a waste. I learned that from Josephine and the Ultralife LP.
Waste is the title of the final track.
To read the next entry in the Phasing and Ideas Series, click below.
Epilogue
Extending that experience is a call to share the significant moments that have shaped us, allowing others to glimpse the profoundness we once encountered. In this act of sharing, one transcends the limitations of individual existence, embracing the collective tapestry of the human experience.
By extending our experiences, our lives become interwoven, each thread contributing to the larger fabric of humanity. Through the transmission of our profound encounters, one bridges the gap between themselves and others, fostering empathy and understanding. In sharing the depths of our joys, sorrows, and triumphs, we invite others to resonate with the intricacies of our human condition.
Yes, this entire entry can be interpreted as an expanded explanation to why I made this series.