Cosmic Awareness

My husband is currently reading The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick. We're both big fans of the podcast and he's been finding a lot of insight in what Chris has to say, and found Chris to be an inspirational figure (we're not talking like Gandi, or Mother Theresa, but on a different level). One of the passages that particularly struck him was a part about how the Universe really isn't out to get you and the world is not set up against you.

"To think that the Universe (a) is sentient and (b) would focus all or even part of its energy to ensure your unhappiness is laughable and more than a little self-centered. But it's not all the Nerd's fault. It's human nature to attach reasoning to events in an attempt to understand an otherwise reasonless world, no matter how ridiculous."

Seriously. Go out and get this book even if you're not a Nerd. The guy makes sense and is remarkably on target for a lot of people even when he's not cracking a joke. Anyway, getting back to what I was thinking. Sometimes its really hard to remember that the Universe isn't sentient. Especially if you read your horoscope. Monday I got this:

"Spending time at home sounds like a good idea, but you may have to go in to work anyway. In fact, you might have many things to do now that require you to head out into the world. Keep in mind that your words can make all the difference between success and failure, so don't complain about your professional obligations or social commitments. Instead, be as positive as possible when talking about your plans today and then try to manifest what's most important to you throughout the day."

I really had to think hard to remember that horoscopes are generic, not-written-specifically for me writings that are probably prepared by some horoscope algorithm "Statement 1: feel lazy Statement 2: don't Statement 3: insert generic platitude here" in some data center floating on a barge across the world, even if it does feel sometimes like they have a pulse on who you are. What it comes down to is that our experiences are hardly unique in the world. Most people have a day in their life where they feel lazy and don't want to do anything. Most people have professional obligations and social commitments. And contrary to this blog post, most of us don't have "Special Snowflake Syndrome" even if we are in the right age range. We know are experiences are not unique, and yet, we feel alone in the world.

That's why so many people rail against the universe. They feel it gives them common cause, a uniting of faith. Because everyone at some point in their life has felt that things just aren't going well and they can't do anything about it. And then they don't feel so alone in the world.

The better way to come together is to be aware that the universe is there. It just is. It doesn't move. It doesn't think about any particular part of it. It really doesn't matter what happens with it until it isn't.

And as Futurama told us, that's not going to happen until year 1 billion. So we, uh, have awhile to come to terms with it.

Today what I am grateful for is that there are people, the Interwebs, things, and pets in this world that give us those common experiences so that we don't need to rail against the universe but promote harmony, peace, justice, and happiness throughout.

[Side note: this post written 11/4/13 10:00 pm. I apologize if my language or thoughts offends you in any way. And note that we will get back to talking about fiber and genealogy. Eventually.]