The Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands, and Being

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In The Netherlands.

What an interesting phrase. The Netherlands. Like the Netherworld. The Other World. The Outer Lands. It's a matter of perspective.

The Netherlands aren't so nether if you are in them or from them.

Like the "Middle East." Middle in comparison to what? East relative to Europe, but West relative to India, China, or Japan. Why is Asia referred to as "the Far East" but California is never called "the Far West"?

Of course, we talk about Eastern culture and Western. Eastern philosophy and Western religion. And more people are becoming attuned to the Northern world and the Southern. Yet, all of that is simply agreed upon terminology. There is nothing inherently east, west, north, or south. We orient ourselves based on our perception of magnetism? On where the sun rises and sets? Yet, the sun rises and sets in the same place only twice each year -- at best. And even then, it is a matter of perception. The sun doesn't rise or set. the earth moves; it revolves, rotates, and travels through the galaxy, and propels through the universe. It has never been in the same place twice.

You can only be where you are. A museum might show us where we were, but our experience of that museum will tell us where we are. Nether or Not.