I am indebted to Chuck Anderson who inspired this conversation.
In a conversation coming from already being
transformed
(along the lines of: there's
nothing to do
to become
transformed
except to get you're already
transformed),
the title of this essay,
"Already Here",
couldn't be
"Already There".
If it was, it wouldn't be the same conversation. Not only that: if it
were
"Already There"
it wouldn't be about
transformation.
In a conversation like this, you could say "We're already here" and you
could also say "We're already there.". Yes they both sound as if they
imply the same thing - even though the latter is the more colloquial
form. But notice they're not interchangeable.
"Already Here"
speaks coming from we're already
transformedhere - speak "I'm already here" and be with the
languaging
of it to really get the
transformed
experience of it.
"Already There"
speaks coming from there's some place to get to - speak
"I'm already there" and be with the
languaging
of it closely, and you'll see
"Already There"
doesn't refer to
transformation
at all.
"Already There"
lives in the domain called
"someday".
What this conversation calls attention to is how we're
thrown (if you will) to speak about a future (not a
future as
possibility
but rather a
"someday"
future) when we'll be
transformed
or when we'll become
transformed.
Speaking this way is evidence we don't know we're alreadytransformed.
Or it's proof we've forgotten we're already
transformed.
Or both. I'm referring to the way we speak during the untransformed
phase of our
transformed
/ untransformed /
transformed
lives, the way we're thrown to speak in terms of "being there" ie the
way we're thrown to speak in terms of becoming
transformed
without realizing we're already here.
Paradoxically,
yearning to be there, striving to be there, working to be
there is powerful enough to generate a momentum in which the
possibility of being already here is killed off.
Here's that clarification again - articulated as a ratio:
being
"Already There"
is to being
"Out There"
as being
"Already Here"
is to being
"Out Here".
It's only the latter which is the domain of
transformation.
Notice being is present in
"Already Here"
and
"Out Here".
Notice there's no being in
"Already There"
and
"Out There".
Cautionary note: while it
works
better experientially to say "We're already here",
saying it this way without being responsible for how it lands in
untransformed
ears is tantamount to speaking
Fahrenheit
in a
Celsius
world. Saying "We're already there" works better
communicatively inside the conversation we are, inside the
yearning we are, inside the thrown-ness we are to want to
"be there".
But that's the grand illusion, and if you speak "We're already there"
rather than "We're already here", you're only feeding into and
furthering the grand illusion. The grand illusion is that there's some
other way to be other than the way we are, that there's some other
place to get to other than where we are. And I'm suggesting there's no
other way to be other than the way we are, that there's no other place
to get to other than where we are.