A simple seeker was meditating on the concepts of projection and rejection, and wondering if they were one and the same.
“One and the same what?”
“Perhaps not exactly one and the same but …”
“But what?”
“Perhaps they are the same whatever, from a different perspective.”
“What different perspective?”
“You’re asking me?”
“Yes. If you have an idea, then you owe it to yourself to at least attempt to express it, if only to yourself.”
“But isn’t just toying with an idea the same as expressing it?
“Not as long as it’s too vague to take any recognizable shape.”
“Then, rejection as a form of projection.”
“How so?”
“With photography, we reject what we don’t plan to project our focus on.”
“Yes, but that wasn’t …”
“I may have forgotten.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what?”
“You were stepping into thoughts too deep for your comfort zone.”
“About rejection being a twisted form of projection?”
“I think it goes the other way, and not twisted.”
“Then?”
“An unhealthy mental attitude. When we project our shadow, to use Jungian symbolism in referring to aspects of our personality that we would prefer to deny ownership to, we are attempting to project them on to someone else. We then think, or pretend to, that we are free of our rejected emotions or thoughts.”
“Self-delusion?”
“Yes.”
Then photography does express the concepts of both projecting and rejecting our focus on some aspects of the same background.”
“Yes.”
…..
A simple seeker’s note to herself
“Was I stepping into thoughts too deep for my comfort zone?”
“Yes.”
“What thoughts?”
“You were toying with the idea of possibly distancing yourself from our relationship.”
“How would projection and rejection fit into that idea?”
“Rejecting the closeness of our relationship by projecting the possible distancing of yourself from it, in the future.”
“Is it possible?”
“Yes. You choose from minute to minute how to live your life, at least to some extent.”
“Would you accept my decision?”
“Yes.”
…….
Simple Seekers 