is it a performance?

Everyone lives in a bubble. Often, their own. This bubble is either a battlefield or a ceasefire — a display of strength beneath fragility. It’s a way to save themselves.

We cannot break someone’s bubble, because it would mean a greater likelihood of breaking our own. That’s scary.

Now, when you watch an artist perform, it’s often an act.

A flow state achieved through observance, grit, and practice.

After all, aren’t comedians the saddest ones? But artists are good because they can imagine.

Any conversation that discusses a situation can only be imagined by those not affected by that situation. This means everything has infinitely unique coordinates, the x, y, and z being physical, emotional, and mental needs.

Hence, maybe you can relate to a situation but you can only imagine.

Does that mean this is an act? To imagine and empathise?

To find a coordinate that maps from your bubble to another, often moving closer to theirs in order to find some relatability or familiarity.

If done right, then without rigidity. That means — effortless, and like an artist.

So empathy is being ready to imagine.

It is the willingness to script the idea,

to map initial coordinates through observance — in the absence of their existence,

and to perform it in a flow state.

So is it an act, or a well-rehearsed illusion?

picture credit : Varsam Kurnia