A Call for Tunnel Visionaries

Reality is a tunnel constructed between the realm of the possible and all that is deemed impossible. Under the aegis of reality, the conceptual limitations of tunnel vision are normalized. By breaking down the tunnel walls, we fully reveal what is ignored, dismissed, or hidden from view by the fetters of reality. Even though we are born in the tunnel, we can imagine life beyond its walls--we can be tunnel visionaries!

To be a tunnel visionary requires courage. The walls of the tunnel are built on a foundation of fear. Fearing what we cannot see, we construct our own prisons with the sweat of our brows. Scared of the unknown, we toil at curbing our imaginations if our hearts should wander outside the walls of reality. Should we venture outside the security of our narrow confines, we are told that falling rock will pulverize us or rogue waves will swallow us. Trained to cringe at the horrifying spectre of the avalanche or the flood, we spend our lives reinforcing the tunnel walls instead of imagining playing in their ruins.

What if the tunnel should collapse? Then what? We must always remember that “then what” is a question and not a statement of inevitable doom. Why not focus on the future possibilities of upheaval? Instead of merely decorating the walls with our creativity to make tunnel life more tolerable to those of us confined within, why not use our creativity to refuse enclosure? We can choose the poetic adventure of the unknown over the security of the tunnel. But first, whether comprehended in a calm state of contemplation or understood intuitively in the white heat of direct action, we need to recognize that life inside the tunnel is unbearable. Only then can we release our stunted imaginations from their self-imposed shackles.

Breathe deeply! Smell the freedom in the air entering swiftly through the cracks. See the rays of light entering through the fissures we have made. Watch these fissures getting bigger with each breath of freedom, with each realization that there is no crushing hail of rocks raining down on our heads, no insurmountable waves of water waiting to engulf us as the tunnel crumbles. Awaiting us is an autonomous life to be lived with all its upsetting pitfalls, welcome challenges, exhilarating moments, and ludic joys.

Bask in the dizzying waves of light rushing into the bursting tunnel which are as brilliant as a thousand suns, as sensuous as a million moonlit nights. Once we adjust our eyes to the light, we can see that the inside and the outside are one, were always one. Like all borders, the tunnel only masks the continuity of what we have in common. Once the artificial dichotomy between inside and outside is eliminated, we can indulge ourselves in an orgy of passional attraction. Why worry about fidelity to borders when the walls that separate us have disappeared? Instead, we can take what is liberating from the past, discover our affinities with each other in the present, and create new worlds of marvelous mutuality as the future unfolds before our eyes.

Why accept the tunnel vision of reality?

Become a tunnel visionary!