Pretty much every resident of the United States is familiar with the How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Many children may only know the the live action movie. Many more people may know the 1960s cartoon narrated by Boris Karloff. Both, however, came from a book published by the amazing Dr. Seuss, on October 12, 1957.
For those who do not know, Dr. Seuss is the pen name of children’s book author and illustrator Theodore Seuss Geisel. Dr. Seuss was brilliant in his use of verse, imagery, and plot to drive home important lessons for children.
Most readers here probably know that How the Grinch Stole Christmas takes place in Whoville. Some, but fewer, will know that Whoville first appeared in 1954’s Horton Hears a Who, also by Dr. Seuss. The premise of Horton Hears a Who is that Horton, an Elephant, is the only being in the jungle who can hear the tiny people of Whoville, which exists on a speck of dust. All of the rest of the jungle residents think Horton is crazy and are determined to separate him from the dust speck. Horton will not give up and exhorts the Whos to make enough noise to be heard by others in order to save themselves. Once every last Who is making noise, they are finally heard and saved. There are very obviously lessons regarding the value of life here, but one factor that I feel is often missed is the factor of scale. Actually, there is life on dust specks – mites. However, they don’t have towns and mayors like Whoville, but when we stop to consider the possibilities that exist within various scales, we see that life exists on all levels. It’s my contention that, in fact, the universe itself is a living being of which we are a constituent part.
But there is another measurement of scale that Albert Einstein very elegantly tied to that scale of size: The scale of time. We tend to see through an anthropocentric lens. But when we forego that to the best of our ability, we see new possibilities.
Anyone who as read other blog entries here knows that I have a tendency to focus on the Big Bang and have likened the Universe to a single being, as mentioned above. Now I’d like to regard another perspective on this, which is time.
The term “Big Bang” itself leads to imagery of an explosion – of this pent-up singularity suddenly and violently exploding forth. Once the theory of the Big Bang was proposed and our awareness of an expanding universe came into being, the next question to arise would obviously be “where does it end up?” There have been hypotheses regarding never ending expansion and, opposite to that, “The Big Crunch” in which the expansion slows to the point where it falls back in on itself, into a state of singularity. The former is nonsensical to me, as it would lead to inevitable complete dissipation. But the latter falls neatly into patterns we can observe throughout life. The best analogy I can think of is breath. This would not be obvious to us because our existence would be in such a tiny slice of time, we would lose the big picture, just as the vastness of the Earth would be incomprehensible to a Who.
From an egoic state, this can be alarming or depressing as it demonstrates our own insignificance. But when the ego is put into check, it is an amazing and beautiful thought. And if we want the ego to feel a bit better about things, we can look at the privileged position we’re in of getting to examine the slow motion detail of a portion of time and space within a breath of the universe. Additionally, if we stop identifying with the story we’re living and identify with the universe itself, we get the best of both worlds.
Lastly, if identifying your self with the universe seems impossible, consider this: the pain you feel when you stub a toe is actually felt in the brain. We say the toe hurts, but the toe is just sending a signal to the brain. The brain senses the pain in its perception of the location of the toe. In other words, it seems that the toe feels pain, but the brain feels pain, believing it is the toe. (For more on this train of thought, see the “Who Are We, Anyway” blog entry.
Patterns repeat through all existence: Ice crystals on glass spread like branches, the Fibonacci sequence can be found in the cochlea of the ear, shells, and galaxies. The universe expanding can be an inhalation, and you can think you’re a toe while, in actuality, you are the universe itself.
I used this same song to illustrate the blog entry “The Story” but it fits here just as well, if not better.
The song, which I hope will be recorded with sung lyrics not too far down the road is called “Illusions” and I think you’ll recognize the theme here in the initial analogy.
Be well and thanks for reading!