Symbolism

“Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character.[1] A symbol is an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself, often of a more abstract nature.”  Symbolism was also a 19th century artistic movement, rejecting the artistic movement of Realism.  I tell you if symbolism was meant to be a rebel or revolt against realism, then it just became my new best friend.  If there’s nothing else I’d rather do more, it’s totally deny my present reality.  Although I can’t say it’s all bad, just a 99.89% majority of it, give or take a 0.1%.  Today we were given a sign of symbolism at the workplace.  A tissue box placed on top of a stack of newspapers — the same stack of newspapers its been peaked on top of for probably months — suddenly slipped off that pile and into a neighboring wastepaper basket all by itself.  No force of nature or blowing of hot air of any kind could have possibly influenced its fall.  No one was around.  Just two or three people in the room at the time, all sitting quietly at their desks.  It was if that box of tissues was like “I’m bored, let’s do something different and see if anyone notices.”  Of course, this tissue box was located in very close proximity to a co-worker’s desk with the reputation of looking like the aftermath of nuclear winter on a daily basis.  But still, a co-worker and I couldn’t help but stop and take notice, and wonder if that instance of “spontaneous combustion” had a deeper meaning.  Was it an infinite sign of the end?  That this place was making all of us slowly slip into our doom symbolized by the garbage pail?  Maybe it’s that we all feel as though we’re treated like trash, so why not put ourselves among society’s garbage rather than waiting for our superiors to place us there themselves after chewing us up and spitting us back out?  In honor of the potential influence of synthetic marijuana and other designer drugs, we probably all wish we had right now, my insightful co-worker had this in mind instead: “It offers hope that it’s possible for at least something from his area to get thrown out. In a more cosmic sense, perhaps it’s a sign of the ultimate order and logic of things.”  Wow, can we have a round of applause for Confucius over here?  Yes, I suppose there could be countless theories if you thought long and hard enough about it.  But what that little episode did was make me think of the concept of symbolism as a whole and why we (or at least I) feel the need to find deeper meaning and purpose even in the most mundane of objects and occurrences. Like hell.  I always refer to my workplace as “hell.”  Then there’s “old fart.”  It made me think, why as we age or after we’ve reached that height of maturity that we are known as “old farts?” Do old people smell?  Are they overly gaseous compared to the rest of the population?  Are they seasoned, much like the air that may be emitted from some asses?  Then I thought of myself and how I would portray “Nik” as a symbol.  What would I represent?  It didn’t take long and with a little web browsing I came up with the pic of my little buddy up there.  Yes, the poor ass.  Not only is he an animal inflicted with negative stereotypes, this particular ass seems to be a repeated target of poor fate, or perhaps bad luck.  If it were up to me, I’d further illustrate him with a large “S” for “SUCKER” written on his forehead.  He might come with the pumper sticker, “Easy target for ridicule or just plain ass-jackings.”  The ass is a hard worker, we can’t deny it that positive aspect.  But that is probably one of if not the last thing to come to people’s minds when they’re playing Scategories and asked to list “things associated with asses.”  

Among popular belief, most would probably refer to the ass first for its reputation as being stubborn or stupid.  And if this poor ass keeps getting stuck in the ass, obviously he’s not learning from his mistakes.  He just allows the sticking to keep occurring over and over again.  Perhaps he is too stubborn to see himself beyond being something other than someone else’s target.  I guess as I ponder my deeper sense of self, I should leave myself with that inquiry.  Maybe one day I will be able to answer that question and perhaps discover a new symbol of identity within before I become an “old fart” and wind up with the rest of the falling tissues.