Dervish
See1,Do1,Teach1
Every child on every continent on this planet has done this…and likely on some alien planet under an alien sun, alien children are doing the alien equivalent. It’s so perfectly ordinary and common that we rarely ever stop to ask ourselves ‘why?’ Why do children get so much pleasure out of whirling about in circles and making themselves dizzy?
I suspect the answer is because dizziness is an altered state of perception; being dizzy changes the way you see the world. It changes your relationship with the world. Children know this. Dervishes performing the sema know this. People who are intoxicated in one way or another know this. Lovers know this.
We enjoy the brief cock-eyed wobbliness that comes from being naturally dizzy. Children enjoy it most, of course, because they’re not very concerned with self-control. The brevity of the experience is part of the appeal. Nobody wants to stay dizzy. But for a short while…as long as it takes for the fluid in the inner ear to stabilize…dizziness is an adventure. A fleeting, small-scale adventure. A child-sized adventure.
When we finally meet up with an alien species, the adults should stand to one side and let the children interact first. Eventually they’ll spin in circles, fall on the ground laughing, and peace between our planets will ensue.
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