No concept, image, or symbol can ever gather or hold down a presence. Indeed, the very existence of words, music, thoughts, and art are the voices of longing which ripple forth from the shimmering depths of presence in us and in creation. Presence is longing reaching at once outwards and inwards.
The Sanctuary of Human Presence
D. H. Lawrence’s poems treat of the presence of nature: natural objects and creatures are not self-centred or self-pitying; they claim no privilege and do not intrude. It is the nature of humans to be present in a way that impinges on and engages others. Human presence is never neutral. It always has an effect. Human presence strikes a resonance. Colloquially, we refer to the chemistry of someone’s presence. When two people discover each other, the way they look at and talk to each other indicates that they are enfolding each other in a circle of presence. Their style of presence evokes an affinity and calls them towards a voyage of discovery with each other. The echo of their outer presence calls them nearer and nearer so that they can begin to reveal the depth of inner presence which illuminates their physical presence. The opposite experience is also common. Two people meet and find that each other’s presence pushes them away from each other. Outer presence has its own compass. Chemistry has a secret and powerful logic. We can never predict or plan whether we will move towards or away from an other’s presence. This is something that the occasion and the encounter will decide; it is a happening with its own freedom.
The human body longs for presence. The very structuring and shape of the body makes it a living sanctuary of presence. When a thing is closed, we only encounter its outer shell. The human body can never close off in such a hermetical way. The body is one of the most open and manifest presences in the world. Even from a person who is shy and always withdraws, presence still manages to seep forth. The human body is a language that cannot remain silent. The countenance is an intense and luminous icon of presence. Nowhere else in the world are you encountered and engaged as totally as by a human person. The human face is a miniature village of presence. Every dimension of the face expresses presence: the lines from which it is drawn, the curvature of the mouth, the shape of the face, the dome of the head and especially the eyes. All the aspects of the face combine to bring one individual life to expression. The face is the icon where all the atmosphere, feeling, and thought of an individual life assemble visually.
The days and nights a person has lived seep into presence in the countenance. It is interesting that the Latin root of the word face is “facies,” meaning the shape or form of the head, which is derived from the verb “facere,” which means “to make.” This background confirms the artistic and active force of the face. Neither a surface nor a cover, the face is a doorway to the soul. When you gaze into someone’s face, a pathway opens, resonant with his or her life and memory. You glimpse what life has made or unmade, woven or unravelled in that life. Each face fronts a different world. The philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty said, “My body is the awareness of the gaze of the other.” We are animated through the presence of the other. Every face is a window outwards and inwards on a unique life. Of course, in dance and in theatrical activity, the whole body becomes expressive. Because others can see us, our lives never remain merely ours alone. The openness of the face shows that we participate in the lives of others. Presence to each other is the door to all belonging. And nowhere in the universe is longing so powerfully present as in the human countenance. From here issues all desire for dwelling and community.
The Witness of Hands
The whole structure of the human body anticipates and expects the presence of others. Hands reach out to embrace the world. Human hands are powerful images. Hands painted the roof on the Sistine Chapel and the heavenly women on the wall of Sigeria, wrote the Paradiso, sculpted the David; in Auschwitz, hands rose to bless tormentors. Hands reach out to touch and caress the lover. Hands build walls, sow gardens, and direct symphonies. Hands wield knives, pull triggers, and press switches that bring terminal darkness. Hands write stories that deface people, strip lives bare. The whole history of our presence on earth could be gleaned from the witness and actions of hands. One of the great thresholds in human civilization was the development of tools with which we changed and civilized the landscape. The use of simple tools still meant personal contact with Nature. In these times, we have crossed another threshold where the tool is replaced by the mechanical instrument. The instrument is a means of exercising a function. With the development of instrumentalization, so much of our work and engagement with the world is no longer hands-on. Rather, our hands press the key and the instrument expedites the action. Instrumentalization saves labour but at the cost of direct contact with the world.
The instrumentalization of contemporary life pushes us ever further away from Nature. Even farmers do not really get their hands dirty anymore. Years ago, when you looked at a farmer’s hands, they were like miniature lexicons of the landscape. The hands were worn and roughened through contact with soil and stone. Often rib lines of clay insinuated themselves into the lines of the skin. It was a powerful image of living hands reminding us that those hands were originally and would again be clay. People dressed in their Sunday best to go to Mass. Serving Mass, you would see perfectly dressed men come to the altar for Holy Communion. They would stand reverently and offer a pair of withered earthened palms on which the white host would glisten: the bread of life on hands of clay. This is a vignette from a vanishing world. Generally, when we lose individual contact with Nature and with each other, we gradually lose our depth and diversity of presence. The world of function, instrument, and image is a limbo where no presence lives, where no face is identifiable, where everything flattens into the one panel of sameness.
Styles of Presence: The Encouraging Presence Helps You to Awaken Your Gift
There are people whose presence is encouraging. One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. There are times of great uncertainty in every life. Left alone at such a time, you feel dishevelment and confusion like gravity. When a friend comes with words of encouragement, a light and lightness visit you and you begin to find the stairs and the door out of the dark. The sense of encouragement you feel from the friend is not simply her words or gestures; it is rather her whole presence enfolding you and helping you find the concealed door. The encouraging presence manages to understand you and put herself in your shoes. There is no judgement but words of relief and release.
Encouragement also helps you to engage and trust your own possibility and potential. Sometimes you are unable to see the special gift that you bring to the world. No gift is ever given for your private use. To follow your gift is a calling to a wonderful adventure of discovery. Some of the deepest longing in you is the voice of your gift. The gift calls you to embrace it, not to be afraid of it. The only way to honour the unmerited presence of the gift in your life is to attend to the gift; this is also a most difficult path to walk. Each gift is different; there is no plan or programme you can get ready-made from someone else. The gift alone knows where its path leads. It calls you to courage and humility. If you hear its voice in your heart, you simply have to follow it. Otherwise your life could be dragged into the valley of disappointment. People who truly follow their gift find that it can often strip their lives and yet invest them with a sense of enrichment and fulfilment that nothing else could bring. Those who renege on or repress their gift are unwittingly sowing the seeds of regret.