© 2021 Greek Community Tribune All Rights Reserved
THINKING ABOUT LIFE
Howard F Dossor
Let
us
image
an
assembly
of
one
hundred
people
randomly
selected
and
let
us
imagine
that
they
are
required
to
name
the
highest
value
they
are
able
to
recognize.
The
chances
are
high
that
among
their
responses
three
answers
would
be
very
much
in
evidence.
Those
of
a
religious
persuasion
would
almost
certainly
specify
God
as
the
highest
value
recognizable
by
humans
while
a
few
who
are
indifferent
to
religious
views
might
well
specify
wealth.
But
perhaps
the
majority
within
the
group
would
suggest
that
love
is
the
highest
value.
What
is
clear,
however,
is
that
all
the
members
of
the
group
are
able
to
select
a
value
because
they
are
living
human
beings.
In
making
their
choice,
they
presume
the
fact of life and underrate its underlying value.
In
fact,
the
argument
can
be
made
that
the
highest
value
human
beings
are
able
to identify is life itself.
In
the
business
of
our
daily
existence,
it
is
easy
to
simply
assume
that
we
are
alive
and
not
give
much
attention
to
the
fact.
We
place
some
value
on
it
by
virtue
of
the
fact
that
we
want
to
avoid
death
and
prolong
life
as
long
as
we
can,
but
even this desire is focused on ourselves rather than on life itself.
But
what
is
life?
Life
is
the
reality
out
of
which
we
come
when
we
are
born,
just
as,
with
our
birth,
it
is
the
reality
into
which
we
come.
And
it
is
the
reality
in
which
we
continue
following
our
death
because
having
once
been
we
can
never
not
have
been.
This
continuum
of
our
potential
to
be
born,
our
birth
itself
and
the
effect
we
have
on
the
continuing
history
of
humanity
as
a
consequence
of
our
living
all
serve
to
suggest
that
life
itself
is
reality
itself.
We
can
never
be
outside reality because we can never be outside of life.
Because
we
are
inside
life
we
cannot
stand
apart
from
it
and
get
a
comprehensive
understanding
of
it.
We
cannot
define
it
but
we
can
make
statements
about
its
character
based
on
the
experience
we
have
of
it
during
our
conscious life span.
There
are
at
least
five
crucial
facts
that
we
know
about
life.
The
first
of
these
is
that
there
is
a
connectivity
between
everything
that
exists.
While
life
manifests
itself
in
myriad
forms,
each
form
is
related
to
all
other
forms.
Life
is
a
universal
network
in
which
individuality,
whether
human
or
non-human,
is
connected
to
a
societal wholeness.
Life
as
wholeness
should
serve
to
remind
us
that
we
are
on
dangerous
grounds
when
we
give
pride
of
place
in
our
communities
to
the
individual.
We
are
social
animals.
That
is
to
say
that
the
self
is
best
understood
as
an
amalgam
of
the
individual
and
society.
If
there
is
legitimacy
in
our
being
concerned
about
the
development
of
the
individual
there
is
a
great
deal
more
urgency
about
our
being concerned with the development of the species.
In
the
second
place
we
know
that
life
is
an
agency
of
change.
This
is
so
because
life
is
a
process,
a
movement
from
one
state
or
manifestation
into
another
state
or
manifestation.
What
we
call
history
is
nothing
other
than
the
pathway
of
life
as
it
unfolds
from
an
existing
condition
into
a
new
condition.
But
in
our
use
of
the
word
history
we
need
to
be
careful
that
we
understand
that
we
are
seeing
only
a
portion
of
life's
changing
panorama.
All
about
us
and
across
the
centuries,
life
shapes
and
reshapes
itself
in
its
ongoing
development.
Even
the
very
boundaries
of space press further and further beyond themselves.
On
the
other
hand,
it
is
important
that
we
should
note
our
own
capacity
as
a
species
to
contribute
to
the
nature
of
the
change
in
which
life
engages.
Through
our
own
planning
and
actions
we
can
help
determine
the
direction
of
change
and
the
degree
of
propulsion
with
which
it
occurs.
As
a
constituent
part
of
life
we
have extraordinary capacities.
We
know
too
that
life
is
creative.
In
its
creativity
it
takes
all
opposites
and
holds
them
in
a
productive
tension.
Indeed,
it
creates
all
things
out
of
their
opposite
just
as
it
creates
a
pearl
in
the
oyster
shell
through
the
action
of
an
irritant
grain
of
sand
or
renews
a
forest
through
the
cleansing
power
of
a
raging
fire.
And
thus
we
can
interpret
death,
not
as
an
end
but
as
a
constructive
mechanism
in
the
continuance of life - life, not of the individual but of life itself.
Then,
too,
we
know
that
life
is,
in
its
very
nature,
energetic.
More,
life
is
energy
itself,
In
the
words
of
the
Welsh
poet,
Dylan
Thomas,
life
is
the
"force
that
through
the
green
wood
drives
the
flower."
Similarly,
it
is
the
force
that
lifts
the
sun's flare from the solar surface to emblazon the skies.
Contemporary
physics
is
puzzled
by
what
appears
to
be
the
existence
of
an
unknown
phenomenon
in
space
to
which
it
has
given
the
name
Dark
Energy
.
It
is
all
pervasive
and
crucial
to
the
operation
of
the
cosmos.
Is
it
beyond
the
realm
of
possibility
that
this
so
called
Dark
Energy
is
identical
with
life
itself?
Certainly
there must be something holding space together as a composite whole.
The
final
characteristic
of
life
we
note
here
is
that
it
is
not
a
thing
.
That
is
to
say
that
life
is
not
a
material
object.
Life
is
best
thought
of
through
the
analogy
of
our
breathing.
The
air
we
draw
into
our
lungs
with
every
breath
is
of
the
nature
of
life.
Being
non-material,
we
might
speak
of
it
as
being
spiritual.
But
the
spiritual
is
not
religious.
It
has
nothing
to
do
with
gods
or
faith
or
sacramental
practices.
It
has
to
do
with
the
essence
of
reality
and
with
the
principle
core
of
our
identity
as
human
beings.
We
are
spiritual
beings
because
we
are
living
beings.
Nothing
cuts
us
off
from
ourselves
or
from
reality
so
effectively
as
our
refusal
or
denial
of
our
spiritual
identity.
To
separate
ourselves
from
it
is
to
imprison
ourselves
in
a
material
world
that
has
no
power
to
fulfil
us
or
express
our
essential
nature.
However,
an
acceptance
of
life
as
the
highest
value
would
have
a
profound
effect
on
human
behaviour
at
both
the
individual
and
social
levels.
It
would
awaken
us
to
our
close
relationality
and
erase
national
border
lines
from
our
maps,
teaching
us
to
say
we
instead
of
me
.
It
would
resolve
all
contradictions
and
paradoxes
in
our
thinking
by
teaching
us
to
think
in
more
creative
paradigms
and,
finally,
it
would
empower
us
beyond
our
wildest
imaginings
if
we
could
embrace it with a more enlightened consciousness.
A paragraph from my book Man Ascendant draws this reflection to its conclusion.
At the crux, at the unimaginable centre, is a silent, invisible shimmer. Such is its
rippling persistence that it oscillates beyond every boundary and is perceived
universally. It permeates the whole, instilling quality and significance within it.
We call it life and it is the quintessence of meaning.
Greek Tribune
Adelaide, South Australia