Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Unbroken Ribs



The Concept of a Broken Rib

You know if and when you broke a leg. And in every instance of not breaking it, you would never have said: “It feels like I broke a leg.”

The other day, however, two people on two occasions in no way related to each other uttered sincerely: “It feels like I broke a rib.” One of the aforementioned was me. I never broke a rib, or any other bone. Neither did the other person. Yet the concept seems strangely familiar and clear cut. And applicable when clearly not applicable.

I would not feel the difference between a severe cold and a mild pneumonia, even though I certainly experienced the former and probably the latter, too. The concept is fairly unfamiliar, not as distinct and clear as a broken leg, or the imaginary broken rib. What happens in our brains when we feel like having broken a rib, whilst evidently untrue?

It seems to be a rare form of infantile reality, where a primal creativity meets an ignorance regarding contradiction. A reality that adult people nevertheless can relate to. Now how could we use the concept of a broken rib to foster our creative writing?

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