David Whyte —marine biologist, poet, and philosopher (boom!)— has written about a concept that caught my attention: the conversational nature of reality. The idea is surprisingly intuitive: reality isn’t a solid block you push against in a single direction. It’s a series of exchanges in which you give and receive, and each interaction reshapes the world. Reality isn’t a problem waiting for a final solution, but a conversation that gradually reveals itself.
He applies this to vulnerability: you can’t control a conversation with others, and you have to change as the conversation unfolds. He also applies it to responsibility: you need to pay attention to the effects your words and actions have, because they redirect the flow of the conversation. And then he ties it to vitality: you can change the conversation if you know how to listen. Summing up the three themes: reality changes you, what you do affects others, and you have influence over the direction things take.
Heraclitus waded here first: “ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνουσιν ἕτερα καὶ ἕτερα ὕδατα ἐπιρρεῖ” — “We step into the same rivers and do not step into them, for different and ever-new waters are flowing.”