Stilt houses along the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia
One of the worst decisions I made on the IndoChina tour was to take the speed boat from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It was a rough ride with the long boat so crowded that the seven hour trip was definitely something I would have rather avoided. That said, I did get to meet a few interesting people and engage in a couple of good conversations as well as capture a few shoreline photos such as this one which I took near the end of the trip. So, in retrospect, perhaps the ride was worth it.
Stilt houses have a purpose, they keep the house above water during the rainy season when the river overflows its banks. This flooding is not seen as a bad thing, but as a good thing as it brings rich nutrients to the land that feeds people, food that serves as a foundation for the community and country. What a difference in opinion would exist if people along the banks of the river didn’t build stilt houses, but decided instead to ignore the cycles and power of nature.
The same happens to us as people with regards to our unconscious. We try to deny the unconscious and build our homes, our belief systems of self, around the notion that there is only the observable outer world, an objective world. The more we barricade ourselves into this way of being, the more we suffer the onslaughts of the unconscious in our dreams and in being tripped up by all that is illogical in our behaviour and that of the people with whom we come into contact. We see nature as a commodity and sometime as an enemy as we wrestle with control.
If only we could somehow look at our realities through a different lens, what we see as forces that turn us into victims could become opportunities for personal growth, for being human in harmony with the visible and invisible worlds in which we live.