Clear Sight

There are certain truths that are easy to forget.  I was reminded of one of those truths this past week when I came across a question that someone had sent into a scientific journal.  The question was “Outside of earth, is there any place a human could survive for even ten seconds?”  The scientist responded by saying that while there might be planets in the universe where humans could survive, he admitted that scientists don’t know of any. 

In other words, our earth is the only place we currently know of where we can survive not just for ten seconds, but for up to a ninety or hundred years.  Without thinking about it, we inhale and exhale every minute that we are awake or asleep.  Because humans are doing this all over the world, we don’t realize that every breath is, from the perspective of the wider universe, a rare and marvelous event. 

Humans have a type of vision problem.  We are incredibly near-sighted in that we see clearly only what is closest to us and is most like us.  We look at a map of North America and believe that the humans who live south of the Rio Grande or north of the border with Canada are somehow different from us.  From the perspective of the universe, humans who live anywhere are rare miracles.  Yet we  are almost completely alike.  We have the same capacity to breathe, to eat, to laugh, to sing, to dream, to learn, and to achieve. 

From the perspective of the universe, the fact that we treat other humans depending on where they are born and live makes no sense.  A poet of a stirring poem, a composer of a beautiful piece of music, an athlete of amazing ability, or a spiritual leader who can inspire millions can be born anywhere.

Humans everywhere have, roughly, equal mental and creative capacities.  If we thought of those similar abilities as resources, we would have to conclude that our earth, this rarest of planets, is incredibly wasteful. 

To bring this truth down to ground level, we might ponder the following.  Is there a child struggling to survive in a shantytown in Argentina today who could, if given decent health care, shelter, and education, become one of the scientists who would defeat Alzheimer’s disease?  Is there a child in Gaza, Ukraine, or North Korea who has the potential, if nurtured and protected, to write a stirring novel or compose a symphony?  Is there a child born today into the Untouchable caste in India who could be another Gandhi?

All those outcomes would be possible if we viewed ourselves and one another from the perspective of the universe.  From this cosmic perspective, each of us is a one-of-a-kind, rare miracle. 

Because we have flawed vision, this ethical near-sightedness, we see value only in those closest to us and most like us.  The astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who flew to the moon as part of the Apollo 14 crew, had his vision corrected by the experience.  He saw that the earth’s colors, without atmospheric interference, were more vivid.  More importantly, he saw our earth as a beautiful and rare living reality, a planet where one species—ours—had achieved consciousness. That experience changed him forever. 

Fourteen years before Mitchell’s flight, the contemplative monk and writer Thomas Merton experienced a similar vision correction.  His insight occurred as he was standing at an intersection in Louisville, Kentucky, when he suddenly saw everyone around him shining like the sun.  Like Edgar Mitchell, he was overwhelmed with joy and changed forever by the experience.  

Edgar Mitchell and Thomas Merton leave us with a decision.  If we believe that Mitchell and Merton were mistaken or deluded, we can go on as before, valuing only those in our tribe, those most like us.  However, if we believe they were seeing our earth clearly, we would realize that there is only one tribe, one family—the miraculous human family.