We are all connected

Here we sit somewhere on the earth in a galaxy within a universe alongside hundreds of billions of other galaxies... and we think WE'RE the main players?

Come on! Do we seriously believe that we're the clever ones?

According to NASA, 95% of the energy density in the universe has never been directly detected in the laboratory. That's to say that 95% of the energy and matter in this universe remains a mystery to us.

Let's go the other way. Imagine for a moment that we're bacteria in the gut of a greater galactic consciousness. Imagine our function is to process a nutrient - the earth - releasing and regulating it's heat potential. Imagine we are providing a service to a consciousness that chooses not to navel gaze.

I suppose what I am driving at is this...

We've slipped into thinking of ourselves, our systems, our money, faith, culture and society as standing apart - as superior, perhaps even as being God given, but surely this is an illusion.

In reality everything is intimitely connected, touching and jostling, falling and rising, attracting and repelling, inhaling and exhaling, inverting. Everything is acting in some small but significant way on everything else.

Between us is matter and energy. It connects all things. There are no gaps, no voids, no perfect vacuums. Living is moving air, moving matter, causing waves.

This is why the idea of the beat of a butterfly's wings triggering a storm is so compelling. This is why our thoughts and actions are not without consequences.

This is why we should be optimistic about our potential to effect positive change on our doorstep and, through the internet, across the globe. We are all big enough to make a difference. But are we any more important than the bacteria that facilitate our digestion of food or the termites whose own digestive enzymes may help solve our energy crisis? No, in the great scheme of things we're just one of many ingredients in the rich soup that is this universe.

We should not underestimate the small things and we should certainly not overestimate the big things. We're all rich in potential. We've much in common. Nobody is a zero. We are all connected.

Ends | 30 Oct 2008 | The Leg

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Essential Reading:
Star Maker (written in 1937), by Olaf Stapledon

Essential Viewing:
Crash

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