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I really like the metaphor "circle of life." It can be applied to individuals, communities and all of existence with equal weight. It is a good metaphor to give me a sense of order in the chaos of the universe.
My literal mind, however, doesn't buy it as an accurate representation of birth, life, death. For all that it is, there is two things it does not represent for me: growth and chaos.
If I expand the metaphor to it's limits so that it includes evolution, it loses its power to describe personal joys and sorrows. It just doesn't describe, in any way useful to my world picture, the creation of a new species or the eradication of an entire species. Then there are the recent findings that indicate that the universe is not a yo-yo. We will not collapse and start a new cycle. In fact, expansion is accelerating.
The metaphor implies cause and effect with a Newtonian certainty. But the world is chaotic and filled with forces unknowable. I've had too many unpredictable events and outcomes in my life. Striving to produce outcome A ends with the creation of outcome B with no discernible causation path. The metaphor breaks down.
The metaphor, like most, suffers from another failure, too. There is a clear implication that the "circle of life" is the right way. That it is absolute in some moral order of the universe. It pretends to explain something -- anything -- as if it is the truth.
I am increasingly agitated by anything that promises a truth. Even an assertion that there is not truth creates a level of cognitive dissonance.
If live is a conversation and nothing is wrong, what is possible?
Love to all.
My literal mind, however, doesn't buy it as an accurate representation of birth, life, death. For all that it is, there is two things it does not represent for me: growth and chaos.
If I expand the metaphor to it's limits so that it includes evolution, it loses its power to describe personal joys and sorrows. It just doesn't describe, in any way useful to my world picture, the creation of a new species or the eradication of an entire species. Then there are the recent findings that indicate that the universe is not a yo-yo. We will not collapse and start a new cycle. In fact, expansion is accelerating.
The metaphor implies cause and effect with a Newtonian certainty. But the world is chaotic and filled with forces unknowable. I've had too many unpredictable events and outcomes in my life. Striving to produce outcome A ends with the creation of outcome B with no discernible causation path. The metaphor breaks down.
The metaphor, like most, suffers from another failure, too. There is a clear implication that the "circle of life" is the right way. That it is absolute in some moral order of the universe. It pretends to explain something -- anything -- as if it is the truth.
I am increasingly agitated by anything that promises a truth. Even an assertion that there is not truth creates a level of cognitive dissonance.
If live is a conversation and nothing is wrong, what is possible?
Love to all.