God Awakening

The following are "given" not as proof, but as the knowns my mind connected in the instant it produced this "what if?'.

Given 1: Either something, at some point, came from nothing or something has always existed. I encountered this idea in Sophie's World, and as unlikely as both options seem, one does have to be true.

Given 2: There are religious stories in which deities, creation, and humanity come about because of the divine attempting to know itself.

Given 3: Norse mythology includes stories about things that are yet to happen, like the end of the world.

So, what if...

...We (and by "we" I don't just mean humanity, I mean all of it, all life, all "creation") are God waking up right now? What if all of this is divine consciousness just becoming aware of itself?

Creation stories sort of deal with my Given 1. Either they describe early gods somehow coming out of the nothing, or a god already exists who creates everything else. Either way, the gods usually come before creation. My "what if" simply turns it around, so that the physical world was here first, and God is emerging from it. Or, God has always been a part of the physical world but is only recently self aware.

This ties in to the Given 2, awareness as the link between God and the physical world. The physical world, life, consciousness, instead of being side effects of God trying to know himself are the things that allow him to know himself.

And Given 3 addresses the fact that all our religious stories say God has been awake and doing things for a while now. Well, our religious stories say a lot of things, some of which are projections of the future. So, I'm flexible on the timeline.

I know that to many religions this idea is blasphemous. I know that as a pantheist it is easy for me to think things like this.

But because I can think it, I do. I ponder it. I wonder what it would mean. I don't know. I'm not putting it forth as a fact. Just a thing I think about.

We humans like to imagine ourselves as the end. God made us as something special amongst the rest of creation. We are the culmination of evolution. Maybe though, we (humans along with the rest) are only the beginning.

Please, No Toys for Christmas

Let me paint you a picture of what happens to the average toy:

The child wears down Dad at the store. Mom comes home from a conference. It's a birthday or Christmas. The child acquires a new toy. The child is so in love with that toy. It is the best toy in the world. This moment is why adults buy toys for children. It makes them happy.

Within the next day or so, the toy finds itself among all the other toys.

Our "dining room" / playroom / office / place where we dry clothes. All those colored drawers on the bookshelf are filled with toys. Also notice the floor, table, and "kitchen."

It is put away, lost under a couch or in the car, forgotten. It is occasionally re-found and enjoyed, but mostly makes an appearance when the children play a fun game called put-ALL-the-toys-all-over-the-floor-and-pretend-they're-the-ocean.

In all seriousness, we have reached toy saturation. We got rid of piles and piles of toys in the yard sale before we moved and we still have too many. We have moved into a smaller house and do not have room for all of our stuff. (John and I have gotten rid of things, too, lest you think only the kids have sacrificed.) Also, we are trying to live a more minimalist lifestyle. We truly want to have fewer things. If we manage to save money by having less, we would like to spend it on doing things together instead.

That said, we would be happy just to see you at Christmas, in person or through the miracle of face-time. But if you feel so moved as to gift our little darlings with a holiday package there are some great ideas here and here.

I promise they'll still be really excited and I'll be less likely to break my foot on the wine-dark sea.