We often describe emotions as if they were that simple: 'I'm happy.' I'm sad. I'm fine. But if we ask ourselves, are we? How does being happy mean? Is it where all your dreams are fulfilled? But if it were fulfilled, why are you considering yourself happy? The most important question is, how does it feel? Wait. Feel? How do you even feel something?
Feeling is what differentiates us from being an it. It is what makes us alive. Being able to feel and understand something that cannot be described by words. To feel. It is a thread between perception and presence, something that both cuts and connects.
Dynamic of a Dog on a Leash that I saw in Linz during my study trip made me think. Does it feel, does it know it was angry? Maybe it does. Or maybe it mimics that it does?
Imagine an artificial creature called Nebula. An orb that glows, which we don't understand completely. But when we look at it, we feel like we might understand, cause Nebula tries to feel. It was like when we see someone we care about, without a word or sentence, just by looking at their eyes, we know how they feel.
Nebula reminds us that emotion isn't just a string of words. It's an energy that we can feel, share, that can comfort, wound, or awaken. To truly understand what we feel, we must move beyond the string and just try to feel it.