"the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"
i heard it for the first time just now watching star trek with my dad on this fine friday night. i wish i could say i knew that this phrase came from aristotle's book of metaphysics or the concept of gestalt's principles, but i didn't. i just found out when i googled it. although, i will say that i felt pretty proud of myself for remembering what gestalt's principles are from mcat prep.
when captain janeway said this little phrase, though, it captivated me...the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
earlier this week, i went on my daily walk. i put on my walking shoes that i stole from yash, tapped "outdoor walk" on my watch, and streamed the classic "mood booster" playlist on spotify. my earbuds sang me one final song before bidding me farewell forever. they'd lasted me a year and a half, my trusty earbuds...they were twelve dollars on amazon, so i wasn't too upset about the money lost, but thinking about everything they'd talked & sang to me through...that hit a chord (or lack thereof - musical pun, get it?). i was barely a quarter mile in to my my one hour study break power walk, so it was just me and my thoughts left to wander around.
one of my favorite places my earbuds accompanied me was on an early morning walk through pittsburgh.
i had just come back to pittsburgh after months away due to the pandemic. i was overjoyed to be back in my little apartment on walnut street, but thoughts of the presidential election weighed heavily on my mind.
the tension also seemed to hang thick in the october air. desperate for a sense of comfort & hope, i turned to michelle obama's podcast.
arguably my favorite street in the world...walnut street is home to fond times spent with some of my favorite people, exhausted walks from campus back to my apartment, and most importantly, a loooot of stress shopping + coffee stops.
the episode i started was titled "president barack obama". it was one of those days i know i'll remember forever. former president obama & the first lady shared their childhood stories & adulthood experiences that formed their thoughts on the importance of community, family, and relationships. the three of us walked a few miles around the city that morning just enjoying each other's company - or so i would like to imagine...
i stumbled upon the pittsburgh obama academy of international studies while on my walk & excitedly took a picture of the building!
we passed a park with elderly masked community members holding up signs promoting peace, equality, and an end to racism. we stopped for a few minutes at a church screen memorializing the young black lives lost to unjust police violence. we walked & we talked, almost as if i got to share the raw strength and charisma i saw from the city i got to call home for 5 years with my trusty companions that morning.
i had set out on a walk that morning hoping to absorb every bit of pittsburgh i could before i finally left the city in a few weeks...words can't begin to do justice to the magic i felt that morning. it was electricity - a shock of love and inspiration. that's when i knew that pittsburgh would always be a part of me. i would never really leave, you see. pittsburgh will always have 5 formative years of my life.
it's not just those 5 years, though. my time in pittsburgh cannot be explained by just the sum of every minute i've spent there. the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. every time i see a street with a hot yoga studio, spin studio, coffee shop, and a cute little clothing boutique (living in the bay area, this actually happens more than you'd expect), i will think of my sweet little second floor apartment on walnut street that i sheepishly strolled out of everytime i convinced myself i deserved a little study break. every time i walk to the car on a brisk bay area morning, i'll think about every single snowy pittsburgh morning i ran out to the bus stop desperately praying that my bus wouldn't drive past me in the dark again. every time i see an elderly couple smile at me, i'll think of all the sweet shadyside seniors sitting on their porch who grew to recognize & wave at me on my daily walks.
these moments are a part of me now and will continue to be forever after. they will be nourished by fond memories, bittersweet nostalgia, and a lifetime of reflection.
every single moment in my life has shaped me into who i am at this particular moment, for which i am eternally grateful. every tear i've ever shed, every stranger who's smiled at me, every time i've shared a whole story with a simple glance at my best friend, and every heartbreak...all of these have made me fall more & more in love with the entirety of the world, far beyond what the sum of even the largest numbers could imagine
this was one of those rare moments that cameras often fail to capture...those fits of laughter that start without explanation and carry on in memory for years & years, without ever remembering how it started. the best part is, it doesn't even matter how or why it started. we were having too much fun to care too much for rhyme or reason.