A wonderful thought came today: when something termed a “disaster” happens to me, including the disaster called death, the universe will continue in its harmonious and happy way. So often I get entirely caught up in “me-ness”, seeing myself as somehow the center of the universe, and feeling that if something “bad” happens to me, the universe itself will suffer. It’s strange to me that I somehow developed the idea that a universe with no beginning and no end – a universe consisting of an endless number of astonishing occurrences moment by moment forever – would somehow go haywire if I was struck by cancer or lost my savings or died on a dark street. It bespeaks a weird view of the world, one that completely misses the immensity and miraculous complexity of all things. Imagine an ocean with no shore, no bottom, and no surface, and then imagine, say, a one-inch portion of a current in that ocean. Would the infinite ocean be unfavorably affected if that portion disappeared into another portion? We know instantly that the answer is no, and the same answer must be given to the question of whether the relatively wee phenomenon called Hamilton Salsich suffering a stroke would cause the everlasting universe to suffer. When something called “unfortunate” happens to me – and it certainly will, at some point – I and my family and friends can take comfort in the fact that the myriad miracles of the universe will continue unfolding and exploding everywhere and for all time. My disaster will be no more disastrous than a breeze bending around a tree and blending into a different breeze.
