44. Why There’s Beauty In The Breakdown

I was listening to this song recently in the airport. The melody is kind of unique and it whenever I hear it, it gets stuck in my head repeatedly. I knew that there was some type of a larger message, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was.

Beauty in the breakdown sounds almost a bit trite. Maybe it’s because it sounds like some type of urban decay. I feel there’s sometimes this fetishization of sadness/destitution or what the young people are calling “trauma porn”. Don’t get me wrong. I feel that we often times need to sit in our sadness in order to truly feel it. To accept it, acknowledge it and proactively transmute it. In fact, I’m typically a proponent on “going back” to our most traumatic instances in order to release them. But to stay in a spot which is deeply uncomfortable to you for so long, just feels wrong. Naturally, I live almost all areas and aspects of my life this way, but do as I say and not as I do :).

Anyway, putting a pin in that… I started to immediately think about life as we know it and fractals. We’re all fractals of “source”, which I like to picture as one bit kind of clear-looking jellyfish. It encompasses everything. It’s whole. And then over time it splits and fractals and you get me. Hi. So what’s the point of this? We all know the general list of it… learn, evolve, grow, etc. But there must be something more.

If we look at this jellyfish-looking orb, we see it in its current state. Which is simply everything. But can we really see what it’s comprised of? I’m not sure. In order to reveal all of its different areas and aspects, it must “breakdown” or otherwise split into several parts. Looking at this “god” you would never know the extent or the capabilities of its creation, until its created. Until it’s broken down, things (which we know of) would cease to exist. Life as we know it would not exist without the concept of a “breakdown”.

But why else is there beauty in breakdown? I imagine that one fo the most relatable scenarios would be the buildup of something negative which ultimately erupts into a breakdown. This release of stress and tension would certainly be happy, peaceful or “beautiful”. 

We can see all of the parts of a “breakdown”. We can dismantle to create new again. Or something entirely different. I suppose that we do that everyday, don’t we? Objects and items are “broken down” to create something new, which would otherwise not be. Take recycling for example. One thing is broken down to not only create something new, but something sustainable as well. Even from a physical perspective when certain elements are broken down it creates something unique, spontaneous and beautiful.