Stratigraphy of Being

Stratigraphy of Being

 

Maybe our minds and bodies have layers of insight and knowledges, just as the land holds deposits of time, lain down in stratigraphic layers.

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On the surface are the things we think about now, the things that matter, bring us joy, and lead us to worry, inter-dispersed with many things that once seemed important but will likely not remain in the record long term.

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Below that are the learnings from our pasts, going back from recent years to early adulthood, the chapters of youth and childhood.

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Underneath these this are the ancestral layers.

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Starting with our contemporary kin, parents, siblings, cousins, to our grandparents and their parents, siblings, cousins, and grandparents.

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They leave traces: artefacts and foundations in the soil we are made of.

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Some artefacts and foundations are very well preserved, others are broken or in a stage of decay, and some look like they’re decomposed entirely.

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But even at the stage where our ancestors’ names and the details of their lives are not known, and we have no clear picture of them, these artefacts still leave traces behind.

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We all share some of the same layers, which go back all the way to the common ancestors of humanity, who link together the whole human family.

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Under these are the more-than-human layers, from our animal and microbial kin.

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We are born with these complex layers but we have some power to preserve or change them.

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This power is uneven, it is influenced by the layers, and it can be hard to find.

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We can decide whether to dig into our layers or pretend they are not there.

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If we excavate we can try to find meaning.

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We can carefully take note of what we find and bury it with care if we wish to keep it.

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If we find a layer that is causing harm, we can take a note of what we find and dig it out, or allow it to be composted, turning something bad into something that will help us.

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Or we can leave it alone, walking over it and compacting it even deeper.

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The layers near the top are the ones we lay down.

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We choose what gets deposited, whether to preserve it like treasure or to discard it.

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These layers then become others’ layers in the wider ‘we’.

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