If we could talk to the animals, would we end up talking to ourselves? The us and them of creation is really a “we”. How we see ourselves affects everything as much as everything affects us. Take a look.
MR. ED, IS THAT YOU?
Has anyone ever said that you look like a horse? In that circumstance, you might want to pause and consider how the horse feels about it. Actually, at a certain point, we all look like horses . . . or chickens . . . or even fish. Our journey through life starts out looking a lot like many of the other creatures that share the planet with us. Stated in technical terms, ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, which is the idea that embryonic development retraces evolutionary history. Though this is not strictly true, there are some striking similarities. Early on, we too have a tail, just like a horse or a chicken. And, while swimming around in our own little ocean of amniotic fluid, we have gill slits that resemble those found on fish.
This commonality shouldn’t surprise us. A mere 22 amino acids serve as the building blocks of all life on earth and, if they can make an Oxford Dictionary from only 26 letters . . . well, you get the idea. Ultimately, our basic form treks along a divergent path that produces the unique individual we come to know as our self. Still, there’s an unrelenting redundancy to nature that reveals life as one giant tapestry. Our experience of it is only an unfolding.
We humans prefer things compartmentalized and strive to put everything in a special place. But our penchant for organization can mask the continuum, which defines the very essence of what life is about. Unfolding doesn’t stop at birth. Instead, the recapitulation of who and what we are manifests throughout our lives, and even beyond. The experience of self-discovery can feel a bit like déjà vu as we nudge against deeply rooted traits, previously thought only to exist outside ourselves. In reality, our edges are less defined, more interwoven than distinct.
So, what then do we make of this vibrant living weave that won’t keep us if we don’t keep it? We are a common thread, more fiber than finish. The images that play upon the surface are fleeting, though the view that our snapshot of a life affords makes them seem to endure. Presently, we are in the midst of an identity crisis, brought on in part by the right of self-realization we cherish. How we choose to see ourselves will determine whether or not our unfolding becomes a lasting legacy or merely our unraveling.