Einstein Theory and the Philippines

Bodies in motion do not have an independently existing trajectory, rather, only a trajectory relative to a body of reference ~Albert Einstein

Perhaps no greater mirror is placed before humanity as that of visiting another culture. In visiting a new place, a new people, we wipe the artisan’s palette clean. Some of us have the ability to pull off the Lockean “clean slate” and, in our infancy, we partake in a world void of prejudgment, prejudicial musings, and discriminatory habits. Thus, that was my experience in the Philippines.

The most striking feature of the Filipino culture is one of Motion. The application of Einstein’s theory of Relativity comes to mind.

I experienced what is better explained as an economy of movement, of motion. Motion was the most striking feature experienced within the Filipino culture. Taking a billion people and applying the Aquinian concept of First Mover, a motion at times most consequential in its crushing weight, claustrophobic infinity, and suffocating immensity. It is an experience tantamount to drowning in humanity itself.

Metropolitan areas spill over with Humanity. Those members continually remain in motion. They are going places, to unknown places, they go nowhere extraordinarily quick.

Some stand still yet they maintain motion. It is because each of them, whether physically moving or standing seemingly still, belong to Time.

They sit under the protection of a bamboo thatched roof with a nearby palm tree split at its base, bending shafts as though melting heat had reconstituted the candied innards. The men drink intoxicating liquors. They play card games wherein no one ever wins yet seeds of pride promote entanglements, arguments, and sometimes blows.

They tell stories to one another. I lack the knowledge and skill required to understand the Native language, yet I long to hear the narrative, the cadence of the tale told in three count measures. I long to be a character in that narrative, yet I never will be. Laughter erupts, cards tossed onto the tables, glasses clink as they are hoisted to their lips. They peer at one another over the glass rims, ascertaining whether friend or foe.

They remain forever economical in their movements in failed attempts to combat the oppressive heat, yet they are in motion, carried by the tide of Time. Tempest fugit.