Lightening the Burden ...

Two grand ideas came together this past week that have me now awake at almost 1:00 in the morning. I have to admit though, one in the morning is like noon for me because I'm a night owl and up until five or six pretty regularly. Let's just say I'm distracted by notions at this time of night away from my regular routine of quietly watching television DVD's with headphones on my laptop while the wife sleeps beside me. The woman can sleep through anything - even her dysfunctional husband's vibrational typing furiously at mad ideas.

At any rate, I read something a few days ago that reiterated the idea that our lives are better spent looking for and creating connections rather than looking for or creating divisions. The wisdom in that comes from the truth that life is interconnected and interdependent and, if you ask me, anyone who argues the contrary is either fast asleep a good portion of the time or just plain nuts. Individuality gives you identity but connections give you life and, by my estimation, connections ARE the fabric of existence, not division. I'm convinced that "apart" is a matter of perspective and not a true phenomenon found in nature. One might even say that "disconnection" isn't truly possible when all facts are considered. I'm uncertain of the genuine utility of the idea ... if any.

Just earlier today, I was rereading Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and was reminded of Nietzsche's concept of "eternal return" - the idea that events playing out now have played out before and will play out the exact same way again eternally - which seems to echo my own thinking that "eternity" only makes sense if space and its changes follow a looping circular or spiral pattern - no beginning and no ending. We can't seem to grasp the idea of anything having no beginning and no ending so the idea (I hesitate to call it a concept) of "eternity" can only be swallowed in the circular or spiral and repetitive explanation. I'm not certain I agree completely with Nietszsche that events repeat themselves precisely - names, places, times, moles, warts, heartaches and ecstasies all identical each and every time but, like the writers of the current remake of "Battlestar Galactica", I get the point. It's unlikely that events play out exactly the same way each time but seems very likely  the themes and character roles do. All one has to do is like Joseph Campbell - examine human history as far back as you can to find common themes in the legends, stories, mythologies, in the specific events - "the hero's journey" if you will - for some such repeating archetypes and themes. Look at the cycles of nature as we can view them here on our small little world and in what we can see from this vantage and the point is clear - the details certainly change but the essential patterns remain the same, seemingly forever repeating themselves.

If Nietzsche's observation is to be taken as truth, then space and change (some will prefer the term "time) repeat themselves in precisely the same way down to that precise freckle at precisely the same spot on the left side of your precise nose. That would suggest a looping circular pattern to the universe, i.e., the same space reoccurs at precisely the same time, the same gas clouds, stars, novas, supernovas, black holes, planets, rocks, water, clouds, trees, amoebas, fish, lizards, rats, monkeys and people all reappear and disappear like a kinescope that plays the same moving image for every fresh new dime. No growth. Stagnation. But, if Nietzsche was wrong in that the details change with only themes and archetypes remaining the same, then space and change follow a streaming spiral pattern, each pass around an "advance" upon the last, each new pass built atop the previous one. Growth. Progress. The looping circle proposes predestiny, the streaming spiral proposes evolution. The "predestiny" idea appears far weaker supported than is the concept of evolution simply by examining the ever-present easily-observable patterns and facts of nature itself. Precise repetition appears antithetical to life, imprecise repetition essential to life and its continued evolution.

To be honest, other than the plain fact of evolution throughout all of nature and not simply in forms of life, I must admit I have no clear basis for prefering my own take on "eternal return" and the spiral nature of "nature" other than the fact it FEELS righter than Nietzsche's precise repetition model. But, it turns out that maybe that's the truest test of this particular truth. I'm not the first to trust a feeling entirely unless I've tested it with some rigor in my own thinking together with what observations I have the opportunities to make, however, the truth that nature does in the least repeat its major themes leads me to believe that a feeling can be trusted. Errors, if one is paying close enough attention, usually FEEL wrong long before we discover they are in FACT wrong. I believe this is so, that a feeling something is right or wrong can be trusted, because connections rather than divisions are the stuff of nature. It is connections that create the stream from "before" to "now" to "next" and, because we seem born to recognise that which we've seen before even if not precisely before, i.e., previous passes in the spiral, than what FEELS right most likely IS right. If we look into the stream, into the connections already present and create new ones rather than looking for divisions and/or creating them, we open ourselves in awareness to next steps. We become the architects of our evolution. If we refuse to see connections or can only focus on disconnection and division, we remain mired in Nietzsche's circular "eternal return". The "heaviest of burdens" remains ours.

Nietzsche called "eternal return" the "heaviest of burdens", but then Friedrich saw an eternally repeating looping circle of precise events rather than an eternally evolving spiral. His view takes all the meaning out of our lives and it's easy to see why some were so critical of his thoughts. If we are all mere players on that cosmic stage forever repeating our roles and our lines, what truly changes? What progress is possible and, therefore, why crave progress at all? What would be the point? What's to look forward to and what's the value in looking forward or feeling? Can one feel elation for an event played out eternally before and to be played out eternally after? Can one appreciate THIS time when there's a NEXT time? Why feel now? Why not put off feeling until the next, or the next, or the next ... Where's the connection with one's life? With any life? Where's the connection with events? With nature? On the other hand, if nature is an ever-evolving spiral, themes and archetypes repeat but with room for evolving meaning. Nature gives one a framework to build on but the building is left to you. One doesn't simply ride the stream round and round. One creates the stream ahead. Nature gives you the tools to find meaning but, YOU must find the meaning, you must find what is of value and what is not and understand why. Only SOME of the work is done for you. You must do the rest. Life isn't a state of being, it is a process. THAT is the nature of "nature" and it is the nature of life. Life isn't life at all if it isn't growing, searching, finding, evolving, expressing. Life isn't life without connections and neither is existence itself. A divided life isn't life at all. A "disconnected life" is a contradiction in terms.

"Connection" is the major theme of existence, not "disconnection", not "division", not "seperation", not "isolation". "Togetherness" is an unavoidable state. "Loneliness" is only a point of view easily changed by once again seeking and finding connection - a search that is decidedly easy given the enormous sea of connection that is the universe, i.e., "all that exists". I believe we can be certain there was no beginning and certain there will be no end. In face of the end of our own lives, we can take great comfort in knowing our end is also a beginning from another point of view and that there will always be beginnings and endings which are, in fact, both ... and neither. Our deaths are not an end but simply a change, an evolution, the continued flow of the stream, picking up shoreline layed down before and creating new shores for exploration.