painted with watercolors
The other day I heard one person describe another person as “eclectic.”
I thought about this for a while and realized that using the adjective eclectic to describe a person is redundant. Moot. Not even worth mentioning.
Why?
Because every person is eclectic; a person is nothing but eclecticism.
Here are some definitions of “eclectic:”
- Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles.
- Made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources.
- Selecting; choosing (what is true or excellent in doctrines, opinions, etc.) from various sources or systems
Most humans believe a person is something solid, like there’s something at the core of it — a grain of sand perhaps — that is the foundation for an entity. All the individual facets of this person are a bunch of charming debris and detritus sticking to the core, resulting in the pearl we call a person. Or, if you don’t feel like a pearl, maybe a dustbunny.
But this is wrong.
A person isn’t like a pearl or a dustbunny but more like a desert tumbleweed or, better yet, a maelstrom.
A maelstrom is a powerful whirlpool capable of sinking ships. It may look like some kind of something in the middle is responsible for all the swirling and twirling, but that’s not the case. There’s no solid or definite thing at the center — nothing that could be described as its core existence. It’s essentially a void, an absence.
It’s all appearance, no substance.
Speaking of recipes — we weren’t, but let’s. *opens cookbook*
Recipe for a maelstrom:
- Tides or currents moving in opposite or crossing directions — e.g., an incoming tide rushing into a channel while an outgoing current is trying to flow out.
- Constricted geography — e.g., a narrow passage, underwater ridges, or sudden changes in depth that funnel the water and increase its speed.
- Sometimes sudden changes in water level — e.g., a tide is falling fast and water is still pouring in from another direction.
Recipe for a person:
- Energies moving in opposite or crossing directions — e.g., conflicting desires, emotional highs and lows, fear and love, attachment and rejection.
- Constricted environment — e.g., growing up in a household with a loving or not-so-loving family with a certain socio-economic status, in a country and culture with a specific language and certain beliefs and rituals, varying access to resources.
- Sometimes sudden changes in experience — e.g., tragedies, traumas, windfalls, blessings, peak experiences.
As you can see, the maelstrom analogy has some serious legs.
So there’s nothing solid or concrete or actual about a person. A person is a concept created by mentally stitching together thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, and sensations.
If you think what I’m saying is BS, then go and find the core person. Go ahead. Pinpoint it and send me a picture.
All of the stuff that makes you you — all the thoughts, opinions, quirks, beliefs, kinks, traits — where did it come from?
Did you create it out of thin air, considering that you are nothing but a collection of borrowed bits and pieces?
If we were to pick apart every thought and belief and conviction and desire, and ask ourselves, where’s that from? What would we find?
This thought is Papa. The other thought is Mama. This desire has been hammered into you by society. That belief is part of your culture. These dysfunctional habits are the result of being bullied in kindergarten. And your preferences? God knows where they come from, but you certainly can’t remember choosing them.
We, as persons, are nothing but “individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles.” To deny this takes a certain level of vanity. You must believe you’re an extra special autonomous snowflake — the captain of your soul and destiny.
It sounds like I’m being harsh, but I actually think that this is all quite the miracle. In essence, we are self-aware maelstroms believing we are creating ourselves.
A tumbleweed of beliefs has somehow translated into believing it’s a separate person, apart from and in conflict with everything else. Luckily, that’s not what we really are. What we really are isn’t a maelstrom, nor the ocean, but water.
What does this have to do with being eclectic again?
Well, I think it’s fascinating how there are these hints everywhere if you have the eyes to see, which you do have. Amazing how a simple word like eclectic can unravel the illusion: one moment you’re merrily calling people eclectic, and the next moment — boom! freefall straight into the void.
Luka
Latest posts by Luka (see all)
- The Maelstrom Called You — Why Every Person Is Ecelctic - July 17, 2025
- How to Use Words Correctly - July 8, 2025
- Guilty Until Imagined Innocent - June 25, 2025
