THE DIVINE PATTERNS OF THE UNIVERSE?

According to a rather amateurish New Agey booklet on the counter at the local pharmacy if we would only tune in to the “divine patterns of the universe” there would be no evil, no crime, no poverty, no need for states or police forces and best of all peace would reign forever.

The Biblical prophecy of the lion lying down with the lamb will come to pass, so the brochure claims, not just because the Bible tells us so, but because that’s the way the world really is. 

Oh yes, and if we all agreed to part with a sizable chunk of our already meager wealth, the publishers would let us into this long-lost “secret” so that we could all live happily ever after.

Truth be told, there are so many forgotten secrets floating around these days it’s a wonder we remember anything at all. 

There are two common denominators for these “secrets”:

• They only get revealed in return for cash; and

• They don’t work.

 

There may be two more:

• If it doesn’t work, there’s nothing wrong with the secret, you must have done something wrong; and

• It costs double to buy a second chance (which comes with the absolute guarantee that it won’t work either) and three times as much the next time around.

Unduly cynical?  Methinks not.  How many people do you know who have “asked, believed and received” a million dollars in the post the next morning or a red Ferrari by Friday or that special house on the hill? 

If they sold a gazillion copies of “The Secret”, why aren’t there a gazillion new millionaires or suddenly blissfully happy individuals … and how is it possible that John McCain can still win the election?

By now one would have thought that everybody knew that life isn’t a mail order catalogue, but it seems not; there are still people naïve and stupid enough to part with their hard-earned money in the expectation that they can order a different life as easily as they can switch channels on the TV.  

But I digress. The  “let’s-all-play-nice-because-that’s- how-it’s- supposed-to-be” brigade have always fascinated me – almost as much as the “we-dare-not-harm-anything” crowd.

Perhaps I’m just dumb, but I have always thought that if everything stopped eating everything else we’d drown in cow shit within a week or be queuing up for the last remaining leaf on the only non-sentient plant on earth. And if we (you and I) stopped eating other things, you can bet your bottom dollar the guy next door will start serving double-portions.

You just have to tune in to National Geographic or own a cat to know that “mother earth” works because some things kill (and others are killed by) other things.

If the lion suddenly lay down with the lamb, it wouldn’t be long before both of them (and the rest of us) would be looking for celestial soup kitchens as the ever growing masses of everything that was no longer being eaten bred us all into oblivion.

The bad news is that there are no divinely gentle patterns in the universe; no short-cut to Blandville where nothing ever goes wrong. The good news is that the myriad of violent encounters that happen every moment of every day create more windows of opportunity than we could ever use for those lucky enough to still be uneaten.

Perfection is the result of a cumulation of imperfections. Millions of years of evolution coupled with generations of selective breeding with less than perfect stock produce a champion stallion. Thousands upon thousands of microscopic scratches on what was once a flat glass surface will produce a perfectly smooth lens. We are perfectly in place right here and right now.

There are patterns to the universe but they cannot be bought, do not come in limited editions and will not reveal themselves to anyone who does not believe in magic or intends doing harm. 

If we tune in to the patterns of the universe we find peace in the perfect imperfections of life on earth; we see ourselves reflected warts and all in the mirror of space; and we vibrate in resonance with the strings of time. 

When anyone promises to lead you to a perfect world in which the lion will lie with the lamb, think “wolf” and “Little Red Riding Hood” instead – you are about to be had!

Swim Easy in the Deep. Insist on joy in spite of everything.