Interrelated

 

The fact that all living organisms have common origins is not difficult to believe; but to suggest that we are not simply related raises the bigger question: what are we to each other?

The answer is a simple one, but it is still hard to believe: we are interrelated to the point where life on earth is one organism.

Conditions on our planet were simply perfect for Life, so The Earth Lifed. You and I are fractals; expressing and experiencing that singular event. The idea seems ridiculous out on the surface of the planet, where we have the sensation of separateness and individualism. I call this The Pando Effect, and this is something you could easily check out for yourself.

A long, longtime ago, perhaps between 2 million and 3 million years ago, out on the southeastern edge of the Fishlake Basin in Utah, a single seed, carried from its mother’s branches, fell to the ground, did a few somersaults and finally came to rest on the ideal spot. The climate was improving and the weather was not bad that day. The tiny seed settled down and started to grow in an otherwise barren garden. From that one seed, the community began to develop. Up from the first roots sprang tiny shoots; some of which never developed as mature expressions. Of course, the original tree, from the single seed, eventually grew old and disappeared, but its descendants were already developing roots of their own. Almost 100,000 years ago, one of these shoots, or branches of the original tree, began to develop a forest of these shoots, all interrelated and all a part of one organism. Today, that one tree is spread out over an area half the size of New York City. There are 47,000 individual trees in the forest called Pando; all interconnected and interrelated underground. In the same space, in New York City, there are 4.7 individual humans who call New York home; all interconnected and interrelated as well.

When you go to Pando today, you could walk through the beautiful aspens. You could see them in various stages of development. You’d see some which have fallen and some rotting stumps. It’s really difficult to keep in mind that this is one aspen and not 47,000.

Likewise, I recently visited New York City, and covering 100 acres of it, I could see many of the 4.7 million individuals who reside in that space. It was very difficult for me to keep in mind that those people were simply expressions of just one of the ways in which The Earth has lifed in recent years.

This entire planet is just one garden, perfectly located in an ideal setting for a single seed to take root and become various forms of Life; and that’s what has happened and here we are. Some of the forms are fishes, some of them are birds, some of the forms live underground and others roam in herds. Mushrooms, magnolias, magpies and men, each could trace their origins back to one seed in the end.

One a windy, fall day, in the ancient aspen forest, you can hear the rustling of the bright yellow leaves, “We are Pando.” They whisper.

Likewise, on a busy Friday, afternoon, in New York City, you can walk on a sidewalk and listen just as carefully; the engines, the music, the voices, the doors, the whistles and other noises, collectively whisper, “We are human.”

If you could stand in the middle of Iowa, and consider the whispers of Pando and New York City, simultaneously, they are saying, “We are Earthen.”

Like Pando’s many trees, we don’t see how connected we are, but just beyond our scope, we are a network of only One. We need each other. We are reflecting each other. I am an expression of Life in The Universe and Life is One Event. You are an expression of The same Life.