An ecology is literally a web of interconnections.  In Elisabet Sahtouris's article "After Darwin," (http://www.ratical.org/LifeWeb/Articles/AfterDarwin.html) she begins to discuss how her understanding of biology has led her to become the commissioner for a "World Commission for Global Consciousness and Spirituality."  Her article discusses an approach toward seeing the world and the universe as having existed in a conscious and biological fashion before mankind, rather than consciousness "springing" into existence suddenly.  She sees the world as a biological and evolutionary entity, of which mankind is only a part.

Sahtouris describes how her understanding of biology led her from an cells to seeing the world as a single cell.  This seems somewhat similar to what Bruce Lipton has to say in his book, The Biology of Belief.  I like what she has to say about becoming a "global family."  I was arguing with a more conservative friend of mine that I see family values as transforming rather than eroding.  I think perceptions and ideas about the family are shifting, and as our conscious awareness grows we really are moving toward a vision of a global family.  Spiritually, we are all related.  (Perhaps even biologically if you read about "mitochondria Eve." It was interesting to be playing a game called Parasite Eve and then be in church with my folks and hear the minister talking about some of the same ideas that were being shared through the game.)

Sahtouris references GM (genetically modified) foods and the global economy as two problem areas within her article.  She has an interesting comparison between the body and the world economy -- what would happen if the "poor" areas of the body were unable to "afford" blood and oxygen?  What effect would that have on the body as a whole?  Regarding genetically modified food, there are some disturbing references to mice who begin to atrophy after consuming the GM food.  The seeds of the modified food have spread in a much wider radius over the North American continent and are beginning to take hold in "natural" crops in a fashion that may not be reversible.  What effect might the GM food have on the human body?  Research attempts appear to be thwarted by the businesses that are paying for the research and creation of the new types of food.

The most striking part of the article, though (to me), is the comparison between a butterfly and the emerging evolution of the Earth.  As the old ways die off, they feed the birth of the new butterfly.  What we need do is find a way to help that butterfly survive and grow into a sustainable world ecology.  Rather than fighting the old ways, we can take them to nourish what emerges from the cocoon of the world.  She concludes that together we can make a difference.

The story is found in Genesis 11:1-9 as follows:

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children builded. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel (confusion); because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

This story from Genesis is a Biblical (Judeo-Christian) explanation for why there exist a variety of languages (and possibly races) upon the Earth.  We could possibly simply accept the Biblical account as a part of Judeo-Christian (and therefore predominantly Western) history.  However, this seems a rather pessimistic way of viewing language, culture, and perhaps race relations.  It seems worth further examination to see what might underlie the idea of the Tower of Babel and how we might apply this to modern society and our place in the world.

First, should we consider the Tower of Babel story to be a myth or a metaphor?  As a myth, the story of the Tower of Babel offers an explanation of how something (diverse languages) came to be.  By accepting the Tower of Babel story as a myth, or as dogma, we appear to accept the existence of communication barriers and accept that there are reasons for how things are.  If we accept that God "did this" for a reason, then who are we to challenge the way that things are?

If we consider the Tower of Babel story as a metaphor, then we can accept the way that things are without needing to accept that this is the way that things SHOULD BE.  The Tower of Babel story as a metaphor aids in understanding the way that the world is without necessarily dictating a path for the future.

What are the dangers inherent in accepting the Tower of Babel story in a dogmatic fashion? It seems that if we accept that the Tower of Babel story explains how things were meant to be by an omnipotent and omniscient Deity, then we appear to be better off without challenging the world the way it is.  We are left without any clear path to realizing a new future in which communication barriers are resolved.  We are left without a vision of a shared basis of understanding because our language has been divided by God and the way in which we understand the world is structured by the way in which we think.  Since our thoughts are structured by our words, we are limited to an understanding based on language.

As an example, in studying Chinese thought and philosophy, the realization is made that an understanding of the natural world underlies the basic patterns.  Sarah Allan, in her book The Way of Water (http://www.amazon.com/Sprouts-Virtue-Chinese-Philosophy-Culture/dp/0791433862/sr=8-1/qid=1170099870/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6872933-3298446?ie=UTF8&s=books)
presents the idea that water forms a metaphor for the Chinese understanding of the cosmos or the Divine and plants form a metaphor for the Chinese understanding of man.  Without approaching the subject from within the context of the Chinese language, the best we are able to do is attempt to understand the underlying metaphor so that we are able to approach an understanding of the philosophical and religious values inherent in Confucianism and Taoism.

In a similar way, if we approach the Tower of Babel story as a metaphor, then we are able to provide a context in which to understand the differences in language and culture without being locked into a vision of reality.  To use the language supplied through the metaphor of water, our view of reality becomes more fluid and flexible.  We are able to consider how we might proceed to establish a new vision in which we are able to more effectively communicate.  This vision of a shared communication provides a context for both international relations as well as how we relate to our more local neighbors.

Going forward, we need to rebuild a shared "language" which we can use to facilitate new dialogues.  We need a way in which to more effectively focus on the similarities between different peoples and religions, rather than focusing on the differences.  We can see the destruction of the Tower of Babel as a metaphor for the breakdown in communication which resulted when people were given different tongues in which to speak.  However, with the confusion of the languages came a more diverse worldview, and therefore more rich opportunities in which to share and understand the world around us.

If we are able to set aside our preconceptions about the way the world works, perhaps we will be able to learn more about how others view the world and thus expand our own understanding.  In what ways are, for instance, a Muslim and a Christian similar?  How can we begin to work past the differences and history which have led to the current situation in the Middle East?  How do we begin to become more conscious of our own role within that conflict, and work to resolve the points of contention?

In a similar, and less global scale, we can see the differences and conflicts within our own homes and neighborhoods as relating to a difference in language (and therefore worldview).  What will lead us to a better understanding or a clearer picture of how we each understand the world?  How do we begin to open a dialogue between people living in one neighborhood or class and people living in others?  What shifts or changes are necessary in order to facilitate a greater understanding of the world from other perspectives?  What changes are you, yourself, willing to make or to commit to in order to begin to resolve the differences that currently exist?

Personally, I think it is something to consider.  What progress have we seen within the last decade?  Within the span of time between now and when Martin Luther King was alive and speaking?  What changes do we want to see in the future?

The following links are related to David Bohm's concept of dialogue.

http://thinkg.net/TT/david_bohm_on_dialogue_1.htm
http://www.nickc-c.com/ce.htm
http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/bohm_dialogue.htm

Basically, the idea behind Bohm Dialogue, Bohmian Dialogue, or simply Dialogue (as referred to by practitioners of Bohmian Dialogue) is to simply present an idea and apparently explore the idea in a joint fashion, attempting to set aside any values, judgements, or prejudices about the idea.  The dialogue itself becomes a new creation which is shared in common by the participants, creators, of the dialogue.

How does this factor into the way in which we blog?  The following article presents ideas about how blogging itself may begin the process of a Dialogue in which everyone involved becomes an active participant.  It also raises some questions about issues that may arise.

http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001259.htm

In what ways can we approach a new style or method of communication?  How does this attempt become effective?  How do we judge the effectiveness of the approach?  How does Dialogue compare to other forms of communication, and what is the relative effectiveness?

Marriage Morning

Alfred, Lord Tennyson  

 Light, so low upon earth,

You send a flash to the sun.

Here is the golden close of love,

All my wooing is done.

Oh, the woods and the meadows,

Woods where we hid from the wet,

Stiles where we stay'd to be kind,

Meadows in which we met!

Light, so low in the vale

You flash and lighten afar,

For this is the golden morning of love,

And you are his morning star.

Flash, I am coming, I come,

By meadow and stile and wood,

Oh, lighten into my eyes and heart,

Into my heart and my blood!

Heart, are you great enough

For a love that never tires?

O' heart, are you great enough for love?

I have heard of thorns and briers,

Over the meadow and stiles,

Over the world to the end of it

Flash for a million miles.

It is the miller's daughter,
...And she is grown so dear, so dear,
That I would be the jewel
...That trembles in her ear:
For hid in ringlets day and night,
I'd touch her neck so warm and white.

And I would be the girdle
...About her dainty dainty waist,
And her heart would beat against me,
...In sorrow and in rest:
And I should know if it beat right,
I'd clasp it round so close and tight.

And I would be the necklace,
...And all day long to fall and rise
Upon her balmy bosom,
...With her laughter or her sighs:
And I would lie so light, so light,
I scarce should be unclasp'd at night.

.....The Miller's Daughter by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
                 (C. Marlowe)

COME live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks 5
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies, 10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold, 15
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love. 20

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 25
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

i like my body when it is with your

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like,, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big Love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you quite so new


  i love you much(most beautiful darling)

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have
the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such
sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my
most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,
they're in each other all along.

Translator: Coleman Barks


Some Kiss We Want

There is some kiss we want with
our whole lives, the touch of

spirit on the body. Seawater
begs the pearl to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling! At

night, I open the window and ask
the moon to come and press its

face against mine. Breathe into
me. Close the language- door and

open the love window. The moon
won't use the door, only the window.

Translator: Coleman Barks

I wanted to understand Love, so I asked the sea how it was that it loved the shore.
The sea thought for a while and then I saw waves roll over the shore.
And the sea said "Just so."

I wanted to understand Love, so I asked the sky how it was that it loved the hills.
The sky thought for a while and then I saw the sun set and the sun rise.
And the sky said "Just so."

I wanted to understand Love, so I asked the night how it loved the day.
The night thought for a while, then I saw the moon beaming and the stars shining.
And the night said "Just so."

I wanted to understand Love, so I asked you how it is that you love me.
And you thought for a while, then you said with a smile,
"Just so."

Who doesn't sometimes wonder what life would have been like if things had just gone a little differently?  It doesn't have to be a huge, life-altering change, either.  Sometimes we just wonder what would have happened if we had tried that new entree instead of the old standby.  Although we can still wonder just as much about the big things -- what would have happened if I had gone to a different school?  What if I had waited to get married?  What if my current relationship had turned out differently?  What if I had been born in a different part of the world?

I've always had a strange feeling about mirrors.  When I look at a mirror, I always expect to see something different in the reflection than what is in the room with me.  Or I expect to see a different "me" looking back out at me.  Sometimes I imagine some kind of monstrous image looking back out at me, and other times I just imagine myself with a different hairstyle or different coloured eyes.

When I was in grade school, we used to have to read these cards and answer questions on them to test our comprehension of the material.  There was one story in particular that stuck with me.  It was about this boy who was living an ordinary life until he managed to somehow step through a mirror and then he entered an entirely different, albeit similar, world.  There was the second story about Alice, too, "Through the Looking Glass."

I think we are often seeking ways in which to change the world through our imaginations, or just simply wondering how things might have been.  Every time we come to a crossroads in our lives, we make a choice that we carry with us.  Often, in our desire to live good lives and do the right thing, we wonder if we are making the right choice.

One of my friends and I had a discussion recently in which she wondered whether making a particular decision (in her case going back to school) meant that she was running away from her current life and situation or whether she was truly entering a path that would lead her closer to her true self and calling.

Another friend is constantly worrying that if she stays with her current boyfriend then she might run into a situation where he does not return the depth of her feelings for him.  She often wonders if she should simply leave the relationship before things go on too long or if, by staying, her boyfriend's feelings will continue to develop.

A third friend is contemplating changing particular things about her life and potentially leaving a situation she has been in for almost half a decade.  After having been in her current situation for such a long period of time, how will those changes affect her life and where will she be after?

In high school I developed this theory about reality and choices that was based on my limited understanding of quantum physics.  In quantum physics, light or energy can either be described as a particle or a wave, depending on the qualities observed within a particular experiment.  It is never observed as both at the same time, and has a tendency to change its apparent nature based on the measurements taken.  There is a thought experiment known as "Schrodinger's Cat," in which a cat is put into a lead box.  Within the box is a poison pill that has either broken open (resulting in a dead cat) or not (leaving the cat intact and most likely asleep).  So at any given moment, the cat is either alive or dead.  The problem is that the cat's state cannot be determined without opening the box and by opening the box the state may be affected (the pill could be broken by the movement taken to open the box, for example).  As long as the box remains closed, the cat can apparently remain indefinitely in BOTH states at once (although his actual state is undetermined).

Based on ideas formed by that information, I decided that every choice we make must result in a reality that actually includes BOTH results.  So for each fork we encounter, some version of our "real" self takes one branch AND the other, resulting in two different realities co-existing at the same time.  If you stretch this idea out into a tree-like shape, you can begin to see how each branch continues to fork into a nearly infinite series of choices.

As a child, I used to like to sit on the sink in my parents' bathroom.  They had a mirror that stretched out over the back of the sink and a medicine cabinet on each side of the sink, so that there was a mirror on each side that was situated on hinges.  By sitting in the middle, I could open both cabinets at the same time so that the mirrors faced the center mirror and I would be enclosed by all three mirrors.  It seemed as if I could see infinity, surrounded by a million or more different copies of myself.  I was fascinated by it.  I imagine that the many different paths would be something akin to that if we could stand at one crossroads and look down the lengths of the paths resulting from that single choice.

I just finished watching a movie for one of my classes called "Run, Lola, Run."  It is a German film and the plot unfolds essentially three different times with three different results.  One of the interesting things about the film is that it doesn't just follow the course of events for the two main characters.  It also follows the paths of the lives of many of the minor characters and shows how their lives might progress if things unfold differently.  In addition to the film, we are supposed to read a story by Jorge Luis Borges called "The Garden of Forking Paths."  The style of the story is somewhat different from the usual linear narrative of most tales.  I'm thinking that I might try experimenting with something similar in my own way and see where it goes.

So, all of that said... how many other people really wonder how differently their lives could have been?  What might you wonder about how your life might have gone differently?  How do you think that your choices might contribute to your own growth and potential?