Spiral Thinking (2 February 2009)

 

 

I learned today that Sudanese people think of time in a spiral.  The Western mindset often thinks of time linearly.  The past stretches out behind us in a line and the future moves forward in a line.  It was explained today that here people think that time spirals by the seasons.  The spiral has rain and dry on opposite sides of the spin.  People can remember that an event occurred last rain and can think to that part of the spiral.  Future is tricky, though.  Thinking up to the next rain is really stretching it.  This makes long term planning challenging.  Many mau have a better understanding than Westerners that we are not in control of our future.  The downside is that there can also be fatalistic tendency to believe that life is too unpredictable to be worth trying to plan for or and shape the future.  It was mentioned that if you ask someone what they are preaching next Sunday, than a confused look might be given, since next Sunday is so far away.