It is all connected.
We are all connected.
I’m not the only one who says this. There are kajillions of us who think this way.
John Muir, that amazing man, once said: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
Yep. We are hitched. We are all made up of the same atoms, and molecules. Just a bunch of little chunks of the Cosmos, walking around in business suits, party hats, and dog collars; taking root in backyard gardens; landing on the walls of kitchens; flowing through rock beds. We are all the same stuff.
John Muir knew this. Of course, Muir was known as the “Father of the National Parks.” He was the salt of the earth. A naturalist, and author. But more than anything, he was an environmental philosopher — an early champion for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. Good thing for us.
Muir hung out a little bit with Teddy Roosevelt. He went camping with Roosevelt out in Yosemite. They probably roasted weenies over an open fire. And then, he convinced the President that we needed to protect our magnificent resources; our beautiful lands. Roosevelt agreed and became a tremendously big force in establishing the National Park System.
All connected. Even the 10-pack of hot dogs, and the 8-pack of hot dog buns, somehow, all make sense.
I started all of this because of a quote I read this morning, by Theodore Roosevelt. He once said, “I am a part of everything that I have read.”
That really struck me. I think he is right. Everything we read becomes a part of us. As does everything we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. It all leaves an imprint on us. It leaves a little mark on our psyche. And our lives become ours. Yes, our DNA forms us. But we are also products of our environment.
So yes. The things we read stay with us. Maybe not consciously. But our every experience shapes us.
One minute, we do not know something. And then, in the next, we have learned it. And then we know. We are shaped.
I love the scene in the Matrix, when they “download” information directly into their brains. And all of a sudden, Keanu Reeves says, “I know Kung Fu.”
Yes, we are all connected, and all our experiences build on the next. They gather and conglomerate. They mix and mingle. It is all a big pot of Cosmos Soup. A system of thought and energy and life, all spinning and twisting and flowing around. And all in the same infinite bowl of broth.
Connected. I wish everyone could remember this when we move through our days. When we meet one another on the street. In every moment we exist in this very connected place.
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The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. — Galileo Galilei
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Believe you can and you’re halfway there. — Theodore Roosevelt
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Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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