Attempt #???

Connecting the dots is a performance that has been reproduced multiple times throughout human history.

Towards the beginning of human history, it may have been embodied within the behaviors of my earliest ancestors, appearing in a metaphysical form, while apt to be indiscernible from the perspective of anyone at the time.

At some point unfamiliar to me, my ancestors looked up at the night sky and developed ways of bringing the stars closer to Earth, establishing constellations. A little later, as other ancestors of mine began to sail and travel across the seas, dots were being connected, as they observed wind patterns and the Sun’s position in the sky while taking care to chart and analyze what they encountered.

Closer to the present, my ancestors began to write music, linking notes to each other, sometimes linking notes of the same pitch and value, sometimes linking notes of the same pitch with differing values, and sometimes linking notes that differ in both pitch and value.

Just 20 years ago, my peers and I drew pictures with the help of dots, numbers, and instructions.

Now, I’m entertaining different ways of seeing myself and my history with the help of the influences in my life, allowing thoughts and feelings I’ve rejected to come closer to me and into my personal space; flipping statements and developing antitheses per the advice of people I’ve met; braving unfamiliar conceptual territories while fueled by confusion that stems from childhood memories; putting myself on a bench to rest as a result of paying respects to the state of my mind and body; falling off the edge of a cliff due to interactions between molecules and instances of nuclear fusion; and seeking support from others while propelled by the words of strangers who live on the other side of the Earth.

In the future, I and others will be apt to recognize and acknowledge how behaviors and decisions all influence the outcome of games collectively. Such behaviors and decisions will have been made impulsively and/or through deliberation by blockers, liberos, setters, and spikers.

Outside of time, I’m not sure if anything has shape, so I can’t describe how the influences in my life have shaped me outside of time. However, how the influences in my life have shaped me is something I can describe in time. I anticipate that how they will have shaped me depends on how I and others have tried to connect and have connected the dots, potentially in ways that resemble what I’ve done in this essay.