Friday, August 13, 2010

Mutable Truths



I love the film The Matrix. I love Laurence Fishburne explaining "reality" to Keanu Reeves. I particularly like the line, "Your mind makes it real." Oh yeah! Several times during the movie, some character or another says something about "the" truth to which Keanu inevitably responds, "What truth?"

What truth, indeed!

I'm a believer in multiple truths, possibly I believe in infinite truths, infinite realities and universes. One problem with this set of beliefs is that sometimes one of my personal truths clashes with another; I guess that's inevitable, in a world of infinite truths, yes? Honestly, is it any wonder I get so confused sometimes?

One of my truths is that the future does not exist, that all of us (not just people, but everything - plants, animals, planets, stars, weather, bugs, etc. co-create the world. "Reality" (such as it is a singular thing) is an ongoing process of weaving, so therefore the future can not, does not exist. There's a warp and woof, but no substance to the future, according to this truth.

But another truth is, sometimes I can see around a corner into the future, before it has been co-created. For instance, for years in San Francisco I dreamed repeatedly that I had moved east of the Mississippi River to a hot and humid landscape. In those dreams I always asked myself why in the world had I moved. When I woke up from those dreams, I always felt so relieved to still be in California, my home forever, so so I thought at the time.

Last night I was thinking about a moment years ago, in Dundon, Somerset County, England, at witch camp in mid August, during the Perseid meteor shower. Someone else was leading an outdoor ritual so I was standing up the hill a ways, watching the energy from a distance. All of a sudden, my body turned me around. My head tilted backwards of its own accord or so it seemed, just in time to see a bright turquoise fireball appear in the sky, trace a brilliant arc, sizzling (you could hear it, it was so close). I didn't even have time to say LOOK before it disappeared. It was an OH WOW moment I will never forget.

Maybe that experience was more about being in relationship with the fireball, like the way in which, in martial arts and in love, we connect with the Other. Maybe it was my energetic relationship with the aqua blue meteor that turned my body to face it. It moved, so I moved. Maybe that small miracle had nothing to do with me "knowing" (at some level) that this thing was about to occur.

Who knows? You see how I try to synch all my truths? It's an impossible endeavor, like herding cats, as they say. But I try anyway. You know.

It was cloudy and rainy in DC last night so I was unable to see the conjunction of planets in the early evening, nor was I able to see even a single Perseid meteor. Dang, man. Since I was having a hard time sleeping, I decided to imagine that the shooting stars were keeping me awake. I made maybe a dozen wishes, all as heartfelt as if I had seen, with my own eyes, the shower of light that was taking place above the overcast.

Do you have to see a shooting star with your physical eyes in order to be granted a wish? My truth? Nope. The earth is still moving through the debris left behind by comet Swift Tuttle, so - make a wish. Make a dozen wishes. May all your wishes come true. Salaam and Shalom, y'all. Happy weekend.

12 comments:

Reya Mellicker said...

Happy Friday the 13th, too! My lucky day (I was born on Friday the 13th).

NanU said...

Love that leaf!
Maybe the future gets created by us as we move along in time, but there's a bit of a bow-wave, so to speak, and the future solidifies just a bit in front of us, not right where we are.
I too missed the Perseids last night. Dang clouds! Thick and pretty in the multitude of greys, but not bothering to give us rain.

Tess Kincaid said...

I love your thoughts. And I love the hazy hot summer quality of this first photo. Happy 13th!

ellen abbott said...

Happy happy to you Reya. I share a lot of your beliefs. We co-create reality. It is as it is because we all agree that it is this way. The stage on which we play out our parts.

We got up to watch for about an hour. Not a completely dark night because some of our neighbors keep some lights on all night though they are not hip pocket neighbors. But way darker than the city. We can see so many stars at night and a very very faint milky way. I probably saw about 2 dozen and always only one at a time. Most faint and quick but some big bright ones. Not the 60 an hour they talk about.

Reya Mellicker said...

Willow, that hazy quality is called "diffuse glow" in photoshop. I use it when the image alone does not convey the mood. Is that cheating??

Nancy I love that. Yes, the future does coalesce just ahead in time. Cool. Like a beacon or a road sign, guiding us forwards.

Of course that doesn't explain how I knew I was going to move to DC 5 years before that happened ... oh well. Truth can NOT be explained right? Right.

jeanette from everton terrace said...

Missed the whole thing last night but I'm happy to know I can still wish on all those stars.

We moved to a new town when I was about to start high school, as we drove down one of the main streets for the first time I recognized it all. I had been dreaming of that spot on that road for years, nothing special about it and nothing ever happened there but I knew it so well.

jeanette from everton terrace said...

Whoops, I forgot to say 13 is a lucky number for me as well. My daughter's birthday. She was born on a Thursday, just like me and my mother!

Tom said...

hazy and foggy this morning, so getting up that half hour early didnt amount to much...just because you don't see the meteorites doesn't mean they aren't there, right? So maybe the wishes are worth wishing.

steven said...

boy oh boy that leaf just hovers right inn the interstice between here and there. wow. i mean really wow. did you ever nail that!!! steven

Susan Carpenter Sims said...

This whole thing just made me smile.

Happy Friday the 13th to you too!

goatman said...

Wishes indeed!
Living in the land of what could be.
Happy days to you.

Karen said...

I saw a few, but had lots more wishes to make, so I hope your version is right. :)