{"id":619,"date":"2011-10-17T15:55:03","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T15:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/?p=619"},"modified":"2012-12-01T10:38:58","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T10:38:58","slug":"october-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/?p=619","title":{"rendered":"October 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have just slipped a letter into the envelope. I bring my hand over the envelope, letting my palm rest on it for a moment, and then, with my four fingers brought together, I slide my hand slowly over the envelope. By pressing the flap gently\u00a0I seal it. But just as I was doing this I experienced a mild shock of recognition. I felt that the movement of my hand had suddenly become impregnated with meanings which are only partly identified. It had transformed into ritualized gesture, something that has connections to a wider frame of reference than my private sphere of life. Rituals and socially constructed practices are\u00a0 performed in the presence of a community, but,\u00a0I don\u2019t have such community around me now. Here I am on my own with my sealed envelope, the very symbol of my privacy, because it protects\u00a0my letter from the eyes of the outsiders. And yet, this gesture is reminiscent of something else that I know of.<\/p>\n

I can identify\u00a0the act of sealing a letter\u00a0with the endless chain of gestures which have been repeated through the ages in different cultures across the world: the closing of the eyes of a child which is about to fall asleep, the closing of the eyes of a person who has just passed away. It was precisely the\u00a0smooth movement of my hand through which I felt connected to the wider horizon of human behavior: that of soothing someone, of sending someone asleep, of saying goodbye.<\/p>\n

What will the future be like? Are there still letters that people send to each others? If not, it will not be\u00a0possible to seal them and\u00a0experience\u00a0rare moments of recognition and revelation\u00a0of the things you would not otherwise have had even thought of. It is not just that some objects fall out of everyday use;\u00a0there are plenty of immaterial things that disappear too: bodily practises, gestures, movements, and all the emotions and\u00a0meanings, private and socially shared,\u00a0that are connected\u00a0with these practises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have just slipped a letter into the envelope. I bring my hand over the envelope, letting my palm rest on it for a moment, and then, with my four fingers brought together, I slide my hand slowly over the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":633,"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions\/633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metamorfoosi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}