It’s an odd topic for a blog, I know,  but once you grasp what I’m talking about, I think you’ll understand why I think it is important.

You don’t just live in Chicago or Sao Paulo or Murmansk or Beirut.

You also live in the universe.

Yet it’s very hard to see this on a daily basis. Not unless you do a bit of work. And since I know what to do, I want to share the information. There are probably others who have figured it out too, but I haven’t found them yet, so creating a blog with the title “The Universe on Earth” might draw them out. I hope so.

Why should you try to see that you are in the universe?

Because the universe is actual setting of your life, and spotting its presence   wakes you up. It packs a punch that reading or talking or writing never do. It goes right down into your soul and changes you. It touches your being. You don’t forget it.

It’s a kind of epiphany. A sudden comprehension. A spiritual flash. You are not the same afterwards. You realize there is another intelligence out there.

How are you different?  You realize that you are in a show. A play. A theatre.  The things around you are the most beautiful, interesting objects you have ever encountered. You are on a stage surrounded by beautiful things that is being watched.  What you think of as “the world” is actually a set-up. A set of props on the surface of Earth, with actors and furniture and settings. You are one of these actors, and everything you say or do matters.

Seeing where you are makes you more careful about what you say. You are not just talking in your life. You are talking in a really big setting. You are talking in the universe. That means you realize how ridiculous you look stammering on about how hard it was to park. At the same time, the reality of your contribution gets a little bit clearer. There is nothing casual in what you say. Every word you utter has an effect on what you and others do. How you behave. Where you go. What you do. What you say determines how the show will play out. How it develops. Whether it will continue or not.

Spotting the presence of the universe also makes it harder to do things that are ignorant or shameful or morally corrupt. That’s because at the same time that you want to do stupid things, you also know you are being watched by this huge intelligence that sees every little thing you do. It doesn’t say anything. But you know it is watching.

It’s also pleasurable. Everywhere you look is beautiful and good. There are no pockets of shame or ugliness to suck you in to fear or anger. The world is wide open to the sun, and all things are visible to the naked eye. You know you are somewhere glorious because the tangibility and beauty of the world smacks you in the face like a wet flipper. 

So what is the sense of being a species that can spot the presence of the universe on Earth plus grasp nuclear physics and microbiology but cannot keep its carbon emissions under control? 

Maybe it is this. The universe is amazing, puzzling, hard to conceive. But as soon as we start talking, it becomes mere background. We stop looking for it. We forget about it. Our words replace perception. You cannot talk and perceive deeply at the same time.

So to hang on to it, you have to bite your tongue. You have to turn off the  app that lets you talk, and that let you discover nuclear physics and microbiology in the first place.  This feels like suicide, and it is sort of. But if you don’t bite your tongue you won’t remember where you are. And in order to survive, we must remember where we are,

The universe is permanent. More or less. It can wait.