The reference here is to a book and an image I keep referring to. It is called “I and Thou” and is by Martin Buber.
Buber compares two essential ways of reaching out beyond the Self to meet the world : one is I – It (my object) and the other I – Thou (my neighbour).
In I-It mode, I am the sole centre. I reach out beyond my Self as to my object, my study. I measure. I seek to use.
In I -Thou mode, I remain the centre but so too is that which I have met. We are equally central, equally sacred.