Now We Are Six

As a family of four living in 15m² of camper van, we have each found our own spaces (the step, the front cab, the corner seat) where we can retreat if need be. Now we have been joined by my son and his girlfriend. With the weather often too wet and windy to pitch a tent, they are staying on the van too. It’s sometimes Too Much. But what makes it too much?

We perceive and elaborate our many worlds through our senses. Which sense then is sounding the alarm in my body-mind? Is the Too Much I feel a visual thing? To be sure, the space is often cluttered and there’s not a spot to sit at the table. But nonetheless the eye can travel far. We have a lovely old-design van with big windows on three sides and big views that are always changing.

Is it the smells? Certainly, the sweaty socks and preparation of the day’s foraged seafood can become overwhelming.

And proprioception? Our sense of spatial awareness, where each part of the body is in relation to all other parts and in relation to everyone and evertything around us. Surprisingly this sense is not compromised but enhanced (see my previous post on Tiny Spaces). Not to mention interoception, equilibrioception, nociception, thermoception, time perception...

No, in these senses I feel well balanced – in the ebb and flow and not thrown far from the natural course of things. I realise that for me it is the auditory sense that feels assailed. There is always someone talking or laughing or humming or opening and closing drawers and cupboards, the regular clang of the step as someone steps on or off the van…I find myself craving silence. I didn’t know there was such a thing as auditory space. I will find it where and when I can. All I can say now is ‘A blessing upon the inventors of noise-cancelling headphones’.