IF I step back and try to describe the synthesis of what Moore, Csikszentmihalyi, Watts, and other authors have taught me, the words which come to mind are “enchantment”, “attention” and “meaning”.
What is “enchantment? Why do we want it? This is a tuffy…. Moore refers to it as a feeling that comes over us which affects our hearts and perceptions. It is something which controls and, perhaps even guides, affects and “pushes” our lives in a particular direction. It could be thought of as a “magic spell” right out of a fairy tale in some sense. I think of fetish as an extremely strong example of a an enchantment.
Meaning refers to Purpose in the philosophical sense. The Greeks referred to this as “Entelechia” which means, roughly, the drive from within to fulfill Purpose. Meaning is what gives value to our lives. Viktor Frankl and Csikszentmihalyi both suggest that the things we do which affect the course of history are what give meaning to our lives. Of course, this is non-judgmental — if one affects the future in a negative way, there is still meaning, but it has negative connotations.
The pursuit of meaning is a primary source of enchantment. It engages us…it is Flow.
I think that the Purpose of RubberNauting is to somehow find ways to give positive meaning to Rubber Fetish. It seeks to find ways to create value and seek Purpose in this weird attraction we have for rubber. IT seeks ways to do something positive and noteworthy with our fetish– to somehow make the world a better place through it.
090827-0740
