Common Place
A Pedro Ruiz Project
2 Jan - 3 Feb 2019
Resorting to commonplace symbols, such as the image of a heart to represent love, can seem a risky practice in circles where originality, intellectual sophistication, and demand for innovation are considered an imperative. However, in this case and taking into consideration the humorous side, this idea could achieve a deeper meaning. Rather than be perceived as a mistake, it could be perceived as the representation of a general feeling that has evidently ceased to be taken into wide consideration as a general principle.
“Love is the only survival mechanism.”
Throughout history we have been guided by our knowledge, our reasoning, our respected intellectual faculties, which provide us with the ability to differentiate right from wrong, truth from untruth. Nevertheless, harmony does not seem to be the norm, and not just within our society; our overall relationship with nature and with the planet itself seems to be discordant.
Judging by the results, one can only arrive at the same conclusion as that of a meticulous observer of our nature:
“magis magnos clericos non sunt magis magnos sapientes”.
One can believe that the path of permanent progress is the right one, if we agree with the idea that competing, subjecting, slaughtering, deceiving, and stealing are occurrences demanded by the common good. Many theories seem to support a system where there is only room for the strongest. However, other models we can use as paradigms are also in place: societies where the need to possess, turning us into unconscious predators, loses every trace of reasonability vis-à-vis an attitude of permanent cooperation.
Some populations, for instance, offer guidelines to real democracy where decisions are not made based on a consensus of the majority, but when the group as a whole is in agreement. Nature itself is a source of ideas: bees, ants and even domesticated dogs exhibit behaviors that do not abide by the law of the survival of the fittest.
Some years ago I ran into a concept I had never considered before; the idea that one could think with one’s heart was absolutely unknown to me. In an excerpt of his conversation with Chief Mountain Lake, a Pueblo Indian, Carl Gustav Jung narrates their talk during which the Chief describes white people. The conclusion of this brief interaction is that white people must be crazy because they say they think with their heads. At Jung’s astonishment, Mountain Lake stated that his people think with their hearts.
It is not only possible to think with one’s heart, but we actually do it constantly. The heart can also think, make decisions, and moreover, it has the ability to make us feel the truth. This is why in all honesty, in an intuitive manner, and moved only by the joy it can bring me – with no specific objective – I dare to suggest these images as a representation of love. Obviously, love being understood as an energy field capable of generating harmony, actual compassion, and solidarity.
“Il amor che move il sole e l‘altre stelle”.
Pedro Ruiz
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