I will use this blog to elaborate the ideas of expanded intimacy. I will also use it to reveal and explore the most intimate details of my life and fantasies to provide the balance of reality to the abstractions of theory. I will also use pictures, mainly of my beautiful wife, to provide visual appeal, texture and dimension. I welcome constructive comments on all aspects.
Expanded intimacy contains dynamic complexity. That is, it is intended to model proximally repeating patterns in human existence from the personal to cultural.
The base metaphor is that of the pebble tossed into a calm pool of water. If you are the stone, the first ring is first relationships – primary caregiver. The second ring would be siblings and other first friendships. The third ring would be the formation of a network of friends. Then community; culture, and expanding out in a force that is like gravity in its infinite reach. These are the patterns of connection to the web of existence that, at its farthest reach, connects us in the universe and at its nearest reach connects us to our own existence.
The pebble could also be a group or a culture. The rings radiate in a similar pattern. Unlike the pool, this process is very dynamic. That is everything you do in on ring informs the other rings. So, for example, even if you have a poor relationship with your parents as a child, you may learn something as an adult in relationship to friends or culture that allows you to change the pattern of the inner ring. And especially if you can change the pattern of the inner rings, or the pebble itself, it is going to have a significant impact on subsequent rings. This forms a fabric of connection that is nonlinear.
