Reaching for the stars

1362: 

When we look up at the stars in the sky (something which presents no problem for us at all) it’s like watching a cat on a mat.  The cat is content to be as it is, on the mat, and presumably the stars are okay about being stars up in the sky.  We can marvel at them, we can observe both cat and stars.  We can do this without necessarily wanting to posses them.  We are seeing ‘an existence other than our own’.  It’s there, it’s alright, but maybe we feel a yearning frustration for things which we can’t reach, understand or possess.  The state of mind of the cat is as unreachable as the stars.  That’s just the way it is.

Maybe, as we gaze up at the stars and yearn for the unreachable, we know we always have to return to the here and now, to appreciate what we already have ‘at home’, to appreciate within the levels of the consciousness we possess. But we can all imagine what a truly evolved consciousness could be like; and I guess it will be better or at least somewhat different to the pedestrian goals we have at present. In a more evolved consciousness, we'd use our achievements to date as a springboard to do much greater things. And to some extent, that is what many people are doing right now.  But why are they 'doing' it?

Look at it this way: we have our own star, The Sun, we’ve got our own planet, we have each other, and we have the wonders of Nature for companionship.  We are so lucky!  We look up at the stars.  They shine down on us, just as they shine down on their own orbiting planets.  What does it all signify? It's a mystery. It's wonderful to contemplate. And think about. But since we are such thinkers, we focus on less-than-optimum outcomes, too careful, too tight, too vulnerable.  Humans, in general, of late especially, have a way of screwing things up, spoiling wonderful things.  Earth, for example!!  It's surely not worth spoiling that for future generations.  

Perhaps the main purpose of all this is to remind us that our present determines our future, and not so much yours or mine either.  What we do creates the future, for the benefit of others-to-come. What we do today is for them.  But by sheer coincidence, it turns out, it's of benefit to us too!!!

The future itself is something we can’t ‘touch’.  We can’t reach it because it hasn’t happened yet.  But we can reach it in terms of probabilities.  By referring to the past, by listening to the stories and histories which have made us what we are today, we can see that what we are is mainly down to our social attitudes.  But change. Almost suddenly, something is in the air for many people, who feel the unmistakable effects of 'being on the move'.  We're so rapidly evolving during this period, we are both conscious of it and possibly becoming unselfconscious too.  The idea here is that we can access history, learn from the ideas it gives us, and grow.

But implementing any good ideas isn't straightforward. Just because they seem brilliant we don't notice the sting in their tail.  Today, everything is up for grabs - perhaps we are faced with learning new things - and that's great. But there are other things we’d perhaps, at first, rather not know about. And by purposely NOT learning about certain things we run the risk of stunting our growth - which feels like not moving forward satisfyingly. Today's main area of stunted growth, and the main threat to the future might be our generally low levels of empathy and our high levels of self-interest.