Topic #3: Totems

There are many ways that human beings symbolize, epitomize, re-create and re-imagine themselves. We find colors, images, words, poems, songs, foods, cars, and, of course, symbols that represent aspects of our personalities, and we declare these things to be: us. If I were an animal, I would be. If I were a natural disaster, I would be. If I were a song, I would be. These sorts of thought-prompts are most familiar today as, well, just that -- thought prompts. Journal topics and questionnaire fodder, maybe even small talk on dates or stay-up-all-night slumber party activities. But they have been part of human thought as long as there has been human thought: pre-historic and pre-literate civilizations also aligned themselves and represented themselves with non-human objects, creatures, patterns, ideals, phenomena. If personification is the granting of human traits to non-human things, in order to identify or highlight a specific attribute and meaning of that non-human thing, perhaps this could be called de-personification: the removal of human traits from human things -- or more properly, the transference of human traits to non-human things.


Or we could just use the word "totem."

My handy dictionary defines totem as "an animal, plant, or natural object that serves as a symbol of a clan or family among a certain group of peoples." Perfect, except for the limitation on types of objects that could be totems. Perhaps thousands of years ago, when the people who symbolized themselves with a totem only had natural objects around to serve as their representation, that would have been appropriate; but now, I think man-made and technological objects should also serve. I see no reason why a person's totem couldn't be, say, a computer, or an iPod.
I'd like each of you to choose a totem for yourself. One object, an animal, plant, natural phenomena, or other non-human thing, to serve as your representation. Some ways to think about this: you could start by answering the thought-prompts above. If you were an animal, what would you be? A plant? A natural disaster? What if you were a season? Or a color? You could also try choosing your spirit guide: think of anything other than a human that has appeared often in your dreams, night- or day-; anything that you have felt a close kinship with (even if that thing is a hacky-sack [which, if you feel kicked around, loose and limp, but still the center of attention, would be a pretty accurate totem] or a vehicle of some kind), and identify that as your totem.

I chose to think about this in this way: if I were the ruler of my own country -- Dustia (Not really -- what a lame name for a country. There needs to be something about Kingdom or Potentate in there, and a few hyperbolic descriptors -- Eternal and Majestic Kingdom of Dustia, that kind of thing.) -- what would be on the flag? I tried to create an image of my country's flag, but since I'm terrible at using drawing programs, this is all I got:

I chose the wolf because I identify with wolves: I am basically a loner, though I have my own family (pack) that I am extremely loyal to and protective of. I tend to be standoffish and observant, rather than aggressive, though I am also very territorial -- I hate when people come to my door, or walk across my lawn. I also like to eat meat, and accept the moral implications of killing so that I may live without any qualms -- but I would never hunt for sport. I liked this simple image of a wolf, with a tree and the moon, because I prefer to think about things in broad strokes, rather than fine detail; I know a little bit about a whole lot of things, but I don't go very deep into any particular subjects (Well, except writing.). I also love trees; the forest is my favorite natural habitat (also works well with the wolf), and I find the moon utterly fascinating both as object and as symbol.

I chose the lightning because I like lightning, and this was a great image of it. Lightning also represents my wife, who is fascinated by the stuff; finally, lightning represents my other predominant trait: obsession. See, I'm not always a shallow thinker; I also get thoroughly wrapped up in some thoughts, which I then can't get out of my head for days, weeks, even years. The thought patterns lead to others, and then those sometimes get stuck in my head. I imagine conversations, for instance, that I feel like I should have had; those can lead, in my head, to future imagined conversations, and whole new relationships. These can go on and on, new thought chains sprouting off of the old and going in all new directions -- look at this post, for instance, which should be about 1/5 as long as it is. I do this stuff all the time. David Rigall mentioned fractals in class a week or two ago, and I thought that was a particularly apt symbol, since fractals are infinitely repeating patterns -- kind of like my more obsessive thought-chains. And lightning, it turns out, is a decent example of a fractal: forks made of forks made of forks made of forks, and so on.

So there you have it, my personal flag, with my personal totem(s) on it. Wolf, tree, lightning. I could have used books -- or I could have used this image (Either of them, actually), but I decided I wanted to make this flag. By the way: writing this post took me two hours, which is about five times as long as I wanted it to. Because, you see, I had to do several Google Image searches, each of which completely distracted me; then I had to use two different drawing programs to make the flag (which still doesn't look like I want it to -- can't get rid of that white space), and save the file in three different formats before I got Blogger to upload it. See what I mean about obsessive?

Please don't go to that much effort. It has made me sad, and I don't want you to feel the same. Just think of a nice totem to represent yourself, and describe it, and explain it. By Saturday, October 10, please.