Umwelt

Umwelt: 

it's a German word, umwelt, and it designates a specific world, an environment unique to every organism, keeping us self-centered in way as to what we're capable of experiencing outside of our limited point of view, our personal worlds. My umwelt is different than yours, and as a human it's completely inaccessible to another species. More so, it would seem, it goes even further to cells of the body, perhaps even molecules, each possessing a world entirely of their own while still belonging as part of a much larger body.

worlds...

within worlds.

perhaps infinitely so. 

of course it seems there's some crossover, an overlap of worlds - I will never really know the umwelt of my dog's experience, with its rich environment of smells and the sharpness of sounds that remain unheard by my own ears. Yet I note her joy of exploration, sniffing information, listening to sounds that are so obvious to her but still beyond my comprehension. That joy crosses over to me, giving me pleasure to watch her roam and explore, and with that we create another world, one completely of our own, a world made entirely of what we share together. 

an umwelt made by love, joy, an experience of different worlds...

that's now shared between us.

our umwelts don't really separate us, not even as a species, they expand our worlds even further, offering us a glimpse of something larger than we experience alone. I have no idea of what it's like to be a dog, such a different world than my own, foreign to my perception as well as to my senses. And I can't experience your world either, not really, as even empathy has limits in its ability to deeply understand another, although it does draw us closer together, softening the borders of our inner worlds. But again, it's worlds within worlds, infinitely so, umwelts of what's shared between us, newly created worlds with every moment we're together. 

yes, my specific umwelt is capable of holding you. 

and with this...

a brand new world is now created. 

~

Peace, Eric