Exchanging the Word focuses on a stranger, but it is more than that, for each involved is a stranger to the other, and as such brings nothing of their ‘personality burden’ to the exchange. It is this very freedom which releases reality. In the same way that a loving relationship can release a sense of reality, so the freedom of ‘estrangement’ in this way can allow the individual to be free from ‘self’. We bring with us history, inheritance, influence, and these are fundamental to our personality, but they inhibit access to reality, for they hold us back, making us feel responsible, indebted, overshadowed.
It may seem strange that estrangement in this way is as productive as love but this is not surprising. If we fall in love we set aside many aspects of our self—falling in love dis-inhibits us and makes us free. In this way we can feel in touch with reality. Being in love may not be so productive. We may continue a loving relationship, and be in love, but we may not be freed from the inhibitors to reality because much of our ‘personality’ is still there. Friendship is unlikely to release us. Estrangement, however, is the perfect recipe for this dis-inhibiting freedom and Exchanging the Word cashes in on this natural tendency.
