So if context is what gives meaning,
what is it that creates context?
Context exists as a collection of
relationships between objects, people, events and ideas. It exists
both in time and in space. The relationships between these entities
moves forward in time and changes from moment to moment.
Context also exists entirely in the
mind of the entity perceiving the environment which contains and
communicates the context. A stone perceives no context, nor does a
photon. But a person, a dog, in some sense even a tree, perceive
that collection of elements that creates a context.
But, as humans, we are primarily
concerned with human contexts. History is the study of context, and
most people are concerned with creating it in their own lives. The
assembly and decoration of homes is an exercise in context, as is
clothing, which is context that we carry with us.
And this takes us back to iterative
design (the glove and so forth). Each version of the glove existed
in a different context. One context dealt with high winds, another
with cold and high humidity, a third with working in water, or riding
a horse, or smithing plowshares. The lists of contexts goes on.
It is this sense of creating a context,
and the manner in which different contexts merge in space and time
that drives each of us into the next moment. The purpose of creating
our own context is to give us the tools to alter the context of
others, to change their understandings and perceptions, their
relationships with each other, their environments and themselves, in
such a way that the context we desire comes forth. Or that their
context is reduced, or comes to include us, or interacts with ours.
In the end, each of us is more than a
body, a mind, a spirit, a heart. We are also the context that we
bring with us, the set of relationships that tie us together, with
other humans, with the physical environments, with our ancestors and
our descendents. It is those contexts that form societies and the
world as a whole.
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