Witnessing

I used to feel like it was enough to hold space and witness another as they transform through something.
I attended a birth the other day where a woman really worked through some deep psychic pain.
It was all I could do to stand present, hold space, witness, and ultimately make sure she was medically okay. In the end I wonder what it is that the presence of an 'other' does in the room. I can see how it can be both productive and destructive-perhaps at the same time.

In order to witness, one has to make arbitrary decisions about what is important to notice. Significance is produced through the gaze of one onto another. In order to notice one thing, there are other things that will get blind spotted. This is a characteristic downfall of critical theory-when light is shed on one thing, shadows fall elsewhere. I wonder what knowing this does to the role of the witness as a productive member in a room and how it can both make and unmake an experience of the one who is experiencing/embodying the event.