Transcendence


adj
1 exceeding or surpassing in degree or excellence.
2 a. beyond or before experience; a priori
b. (of a concept) falling outside a given set of categories
c. beyond consciousness or direct apprehension
3 theol (of God) having continuous existence outside the created world
4 free from the limitations inherent in matter.

We’re getting existential here. Well, not really. Sure this past week in a few of my lit classes we’ve talked about the transcendent power of love in medieval era, but I won’t go there. The kind of transcendence I mean is simple. We experience it almost every day as we participate in the escapist nature of sports, films, novels…you name it. It’s essentially jumping the cliff of reality with no hesitation into a life lived differently in a different universe. You meet up with your friends every week to watch Glee, and you leave this world and enter the musical one. Star Wars fans and Harry Potter fans get to experience a handful of different universes entirely. The rules that exist in this world fade they submerge into the fictional. The line of what reality really is blurs. When I think about sports, only that world exists while in the game: teammates, end lines, goalposts, essential objects that you cannot live without. There are no economic crises, deathly illnesses, or natural disasters; there are only loose balls, free throws and stolen bases. One can find a period of glory. One can learn what motivation is, and one can escape the mindset of every day life, even if it is only for a time bound on a running scoreboard. People change in games; they do things they wouldn’t do it real life. They take risks, and they sacrifice themselves, for the sake of what? Maybe it is to win, but maybe to just be satisfied: for their team, for themselves, for the game even. To play is to assume a new identity, or to intensify and tweak the one you have, or it provides an escape, depending on how you see it. You transcend reality and get to focus your mind for a given time on something that is not your immediate life. We get to exist outside ourselves.

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