Every now and then my mind takes a step back from its daily concerns, and I see another facet of the bigger picture. Today my thoughts can be divided into four parts, so I’m calling this little essay “Four Thought”
Part One: The Bubble
Most of the life on this planet lives within twenty feet of the surface, some above ground and some below, some traveling back and forth.
Even if we expand that “zone of life” to include the birds above and the deepest roots and most of the life in the sea, and compare it to the size of the Earth, we can say,
“The life on this planet
is thinner than a soap bubble!”
Try to imagine all the variety of life on this planet confined to the equivalent of the thin, swirling rainbow-colored film of soap in a soap bubble. For all practical purposes, our planet is completely dead from the center on outwards, except for the thinnest coating imaginable across its surface. And above our heads in every direction (as far as we can detect), our little bubble is the only living system in the whole entire universe that we know of.
I’m thinking of all the life in the known universe as one single solitary bubble suspended among the stars
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Part Two: The Zone
All the life around you, and including you, is water-based. A good percentage of your own body is made of water, and scientists can’t really conceive of any living system that isn’t based on water. But wait a minute, we need to refine that statement. All the life we know of depends on liquid water, which has to stay between 0°C and 100°C. There’s not much life to be found in ice and clouds.
So let’s take a step back and look at the big picture. Our temperature range for life has to stay within about a hundred degrees. If you think about it, it could go below zero degrees for short periods of time. I can live outside in the snow, for a while. But the high temperatures can’t really get anywhere near 100. Not many life forms can survive the Sahara Desert for any length of time, and that’s not even 50°C.
But in this little thought experiment, we’ll give ourselves a hundred degree range to increase our chance for survival. We’re survivors, right? So, we must stay within a hundred degree range, constantly.
But what’s the temperature range of the universe? Well, the stars provide the heat, and although people disagree on the exact temperature of stars, our sun is at least 10,000°C in the center, but at the surface it’s more like 5600-5800°C. That’s HOT! Over five thousand degrees! At the other end of the temperature range, deep space is very cold. The coldest temperature we can even imagine is a negative 273°C, which is the temperature that everything stops, frozen completely; so frozen that not even the electrons can move.
So, here’s the question: What would the picture look like if we mapped out the entire universe by its temperature, and colored the different areas?
Let’s use three colors:
Let’s color the areas that are TOO HOT using Red.
Let’s color the areas that are TOO COLD using Dark Blue.
For the areas that are within our hundred degree “required for life” temperature range, we’ll use a Bright Yellow.
When we look at our finished temperature map, how much of it will be shaded Yellow? In a universe that has “thousand degree temperature swings”, how much of it would be in the safe range that we need for liquid water? If we tried to draw a map like that, the yellow areas would be inconsequential, if not practically invisible.
The areas that stay between zero and a hundred degrees for any length of time would be the thinnest little wisps of space you can imagine.
Fortunately, we have an atmosphere around our planet that keeps our temperature more stable, so life on this planet has flourished for a long time. If life is going to make it, we have to keep our little “bubble of life” safely in that zone. Not just for us, right now. What are the odds that it could stay at just the right temperature for a thousand years?
Hmmm?
We’ve been constantly and comfortably balanced in THE ZONE for a long long time
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Part Three: The Pyramid
Now let’s turn our attention to the complexity of the bubble, and the mind-boggling variety of living systems that are sharing this planet. Think about all the various expressions of plant life; from seaweed to prairie flowers to apricot trees; from massive redwoods to mushrooms and moss, all thriving in environments that are most suited to their needs, shifting and adapting to changing conditions. Think of all the creatures; beavers building their dams, caterpillars spinning their own cocoons, snails creating shells around themselves, expanding their portable spiraled homes as they grow. The complexity of life with all of its dependent relationships is staggering. Think about the difference between a jellyfish and a porcupine. How different are the societies of antelope herds from ant colonies? Yet somehow all these varied expressions of life co-exist in a system that sustains us all.
Each form of life converts its energy from another form of life. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about how many beings on this planet will die by being eaten alive? Maybe that sounds harsh, but there’s no cruelty involved. It’s the way our system is constructed. Fish eat shrimp, and sharks eat fish. Livestock eats corn, grass and grains. Honey bees can build a whole lifestyle around pollen; feeding themselves and their queen, building hives and raising youngsters on the honey they make. They don’t need anything else. All their sustenance comes from pollen. Some creatures get all their life and energy from eating plankton.
But there is one fortunate category of being that has SO many advantages over others it makes you wonder. For we, ourselves, are at the TOP of the pyramid! And we are constructed in such a way that we can convert almost anything into the energy we need. We can eat the shrimp AND the fish. We can eat the apricots AND the corn AND the livestock AND the honey from the bees. We can eat almost anything! (even the beavers and the snails and the caterpillars, if we need to). We are at the top of the pyramid.
Not only that, we have the type of mind that can comprehend it, and appreciate it, and even write about it and talk about it, like we’re doing right now. We benefit from community in ways that the others can’t. We can plan ahead, and pass knowledge from elders to children. We share the experience and wisdom of generations that came before us.
We benefit from many advantages at the top of THE PYRAMID
Part Four: God
If God exists, I believe that His attention is focused solely on the bubble, to the exclusion of everything else.
No matter what majestic and cataclysmic events are unfolding in the rest of the universe, from the birth of stars to the death of stars and everything in between, I believe His interest in the physical world pales in comparison to his interest in the health and well-being of our glorious little bubble, floating in the zone.
I believe He’s fascinated by the thin film of life clinging to the surface of our planet. Surviving storms, rebuilding after earthquakes, sprouting new life from harsh winters, nurturing babies, migrating from floods and fires and droughts, to flourish in more welcoming places.
I believe God loves this gleaming bubble teeming with life, and watches over it intently and constantly and care-fully.
But what are we showing him? What does HE see? What’s God’s reaction when he sees a school-yard bully? Or a mean-spirited teacher? Or a bitter, unloving mother? Or an angry-drunk father? What does He feel, knowing that we have the capacity for love, yet seem to prefer, and continually choose, hate? People have used the expression “The Wrath of God”, as if his preference would be a lightning bolt, or a flood to wash us all away and be done with it. But I’m a father, and I know that can’t be true. I know how I feel when my children do something selfish or hurt someone else. I get angry, of course. But underneath the anger is a profound disappointment. I’m disappointed! I even get disappointed with MYSELF for failing in so many ways. But when I think of my children, I don’t wish for payback or retribution, or annihilation. I just wish they would see the light, and straighten up their act, and live rightly.
If I was standing back, looking at the bubble, how could I not notice the hard-hearted brutality in the world? The betrayal and treachery. Raw unashamed deceit to suit selfish desires. Sexual abuse and rape and incest and depravity. In a society that considers itself to be moral and modern and enlightened, how can torture and slavery exist? So many people living in fear. Millions dying of hunger. People who can’t step onto a bus without wondering if they’re going to be blown up. The thought of chemical or biological warfare, knowing there are people in the world who devote their lives to inventing new ways to kill. While other people drift off to sleep wondering if they’ll be awakened in the middle of the night to something horrible.
People with no peace of mind.
That’s a terrible reality; that there are SO many people with no peace of mind.
Living in fear, and pain, and regret, and isolation.
How does God feel? Knowing that He’s given us a world filled with such marvelous abundance, enough for everyone, enough to last all of us for our whole lives. We’ve been born into a wonderfully constructed, self-sustaining system that will support all our needs. We are part of a glorious, majestic bubble of life floating through time and space. It’s the most valuable jewel in the universe. It’s all we have, except the for the prospect of being with God in the next life. But here in this one, we aren’t doing a very good job of taking care of it. And we’re not doing a very good job of taking care of each other. Why don’t more people choose love? (To be honest, I don’t always choose love, either). Maybe it’s just the way we’re wired, and one of the goals of developing the spiritual life is to ask for help in overcoming the evil consequences of our human nature.
In the meantime, it might help to try and maintain the “God view” of this world, if we can. With the health of the bubble in mind, which societies or politicians or groups or activities or efforts are truly working towards maintaining the bubble? Who is driven only by their own selfish goals? Who is giving to God, and who is giving to Caesar?
Maybe it doesn’t feel like we have any influence in the world, or the power to make a difference. But I believe if we all held this bubble-zone-pyramid-God view in our minds as we make our daily decisions, striving to be more loving and giving members of our communities, helping to lift our neighbors out of pain and fear and loneliness, we will all experience more joy in our lives, and God will be enjoying a better view as well!
just a thought (or four)
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