Wheels Within Wheels

One of the differences between what we create and what is created is that everything that we create has a singular purpose... to serve us. Because of this, the things we make fall infinitely flat compared to the natural world around us. Take for example, orange candy, compared to an orange. Yes, orange candy is good... but compared to an orange, with it's nutrients, tiny compartments of juice, even the oil in its skin, the candy just doesn't stand a chance. Beyond this, it is the marriage of purposes, the purpose of the orange, to propagate by giving us something that both pleases and benefits us, that creates a synergy between us and our surroundings. Our world is not singular, and not there just for us, even though we imagine that it should be. It consists of tiny worlds, joined together to make the

whole, but each of those tiny worlds is complete unto itself. It is our massive human audacity that accounts for our ignorance of  these and because of this, we fail to see the depth of what is around us. It is television, in its flat imitation, or even  fairly awful 3D. It is canned, simplified and served to us as a severe second to what is already there in nature, and in our hubris, we choose what we have created over what we were created to be a part of.

Sometimes when I am walking, I stop, and look. It doesn't matter where I am. Anywhere in the park, if I choose to pay attention, I can find something else's world, working in its tiny mechanism, fitting in to mine. This is why we can draw from nature to understand ourselves. It is because we are a part of this larger system, and try as we might,  we will always fall short in creating systems for ourselves. Thoreau had it right when he advised to "Grow wild according to thy nature, like these sedges and brakes, which will never become English bay. Let the thunder rumble; what if it threaten ruin to farmers' crops? That is not its errand to thee. Take shelter under the cloud, while they flee

to carts and sheds. Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the land, but own it not. Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling, and spending their lives like serfs." We have no need of loneliness. We have overstressed our self-importance and because of this have, to some degree lost our places in the shadow of our ability. We do have a place in this world, one not of our own construction, but a place that it is infinite in its depth and waiting for us outside of our own doors.