Sneak Attack

“‘If you place two living heart cells from different people in a Petrie dish, they will in time find and maintain a third and common beat.’ — Molly Vass

“This biological fact holds the secret of all relationship. It is cellular proof that beneath any resistance we might pose and beyond all our attempts that fall short, there is in the very nature of life itself some essential joining force. This inborn ability to find and enliven a common beat is the miracle of love.”

~ Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

How do we even live up to such luminosity? How can we possibly live into such truths?

I’m struck again and again by the fact that we can’t actually land on truth; we can only sidle up to it, get a little closer. Watch it run the other way, and then begin the peripheral hunt again.

Metaphor may just be the only way. The very search the only answer.

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
~ British mathematician George Box

When it comes to those deep truths of the universe, it seems all we can do is come at the thing sideways. As soon as we attempt a head-on grasping, the floor falls out and we’re left with nothing solid, nothing real, nothing true. This is why a good metaphor is so strong. It holds truth lightly, it sneaks up on it, it speaks into the many layers and facets and orbits of the truth it seeks to love, without the pride of assuming mastery or circumnavigation. It allows the truth to reside in mystery, to remain cloaked and sheltered, while only pulling the curtain back a bit, only offering a glimpse. For a sip of the real is about all we are capable of taking in, at our best, and yet, rather than approaching quietly and humbly, grateful for the sip, full up with the knowledge that we will never plumb the depths of that one drop, we reach boldly, slipshod, thirstily, proudly tipping back the cup to chug it dry.

“Be humble because you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.”
~ Serbian Proverb