via Daily Prompt: Juxtapose

Self-tutoring about the application behind a word: the tutor reflects about juxtapose.

Typically I find that when I juxtapose two or more subjects, it’s a passive process: it happens before I even know I’m doing so. People juxtapose options as they prepare decisions.

Perhaps the more interesting juxtapositions are of scenarios, possibly one or both being largely unknown by the examiner. Do I make better cakes than my neighbour across the street, whom I don’t even know? What kind of cakes might they bake, compared with the ones I do?

Is there a way I could dress or behave, that would make me more popular? If I dressed like Person Y, for instance, would I have more friends? If I saw the world from Person Z’s point of view, would it make more sense to me? What is the difference in our viewpoints? Can I discover it, if I juxtapose them?

People wonder about countless scenarios. Yet, they often have an idea what might be going on, but just can’t be sure. Therefore, they juxtapose educated guesses, knowing neither may be right.

A couple months back, my wife, my two sons, and myself were sharing a breakfast table at a hotel. At the table next to us were two ladies possibly a little younger than I am. Circumstance itself juxtaposed us.

I’d say the two ladies were a couple. Juxtaposing them with us, I can’t resist wondering about the path that led them to such a different way of life from ours. We fell into some friendly conversation; even their small-talk revealed a point of view completely different from mine. I can’t help but wonder: What do they take for granted, that I have yet to learn?

I feel there is an invisible point of view more comprehensive than mine. I’m not sure whether it belongs to a person or it’s a collective consciousness, ubiquitous, waiting to be discovered. Until I can join it, I can only suppose what it knows – the ideas I juxtapose are limited by the confines of my imagination.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.