Being is about relating.
Being is about relating. We do not only have relationships with people. We relate to people, ideas, times, places, feelings, and objects, etc. Even if we are not personally part of relationships, we can still understand people, ideas, times, places, feelings, and objects in terms of relationships.
A Key Insight
I came across the idea “to be is to be related” in a book called Many Dimensional Man, by James Ogilvy (book and page details). In addition to being the basis for the Underlying Concept above, this idea is one of the key insights which guides the ProxThink journey.
– David Loughry
A few advanced points about the underlying concept follow on this page.
We know something by how it relates to other things. We know someone by how they relate to other people, things and us. We often understand more about a relationship by noticing differences.
• How would you describe something? That description tells you something about how it is related to other things.
• How can you change your relationship to someone or something? That changed relationship changes you too.
• If you change an element, how does it change relationships?
• If you change relationships, how does it change elements?
To be married is to be related to someone in a number of special ways.
To be wet is to be related to water in a certain way.
Bolts, Screws, Attachments
To be bolted, screwed, or attached is to be related to something secure yet removable.