In “The Idea of Him” by H. Reade Joo (Field Notes, Spring 2021), the writer evokes the complexities of our perceptions and expectations, the duplicity of the mind as we grapple with the contradictions of our reality and our dreams for the future.

Humans can create a world through perception, imagine a potential life, whether it be the life of a relationship or the life of a baby. We fill in the unknown details to make a whole that is pleasing and good. It’s as if we willfully ignore that so much of life is unpredictable.

Much of our human existence is layered upon what we don’t know. We are learning—new insights and advances in science come to light every day—but on the whole, we have only begun to understand the multiple systems making up our physiology; how each system interacts with another; how the interplay of a person with their physical, social and cultural environments interacts with the tasks they undertake; and how all this comes together to create dynamic human behavior. Whether on a microscopic level as in DNA or in the machinations of the mind in “The Idea of Him,” so much complexity happens beneath the surface, unseen, until a combination of variables coalesce, transforming our present into a new state of being, one that does not always match our expectations.

Still, we dream.

Mary Anne Moisan is a physical and occupational therapist living and writing in Maine. Narrative medicine is close to her heart and a driving force as she completes a memoir about her experiences as a caregiver for her husband who had early-onset dementia. Her poem “DNA” (Fall 2021 Intima) was generated in the process of writing her memoir, as was the seed story “We Are Whole” soon to be published in The Examined Life journal.