Connections

What Matters Most…     Commentary by Jim High

You can never look at the Grand Canyon long enough.  Have you ever been there?  I have on several occasions.   One time when I was there it was filled from rim to rim with clouds.  They were not above it, the day was actually clear with not a cloud in the sky, the clouds had all settled into the canyon as if someone had filled it up with whipped cream.  It was really strange to look at something so huge and not be able to see it.

But every time I have actually seen the Grand Canyon and been able to look down into it, I get a real sense of connection to time – to the Universe itself.  And when I think I have seen it all and turn away, I immediately realize that I have not looked at it nearly long enough.  Besides the feelings of grandeur and the immense beauty that go with me when I finally do have to leave, I take with me this real feeling deep down inside that I have not looked at it nearly long enough.

There is a huge meteor crater in northern Arizona, created some 50,000 years ago when something large from outer space crashed into the earth.  Have you been there?  On my one trip to this site, I stood on the rim and looked across this miles wide hole in the ground.  I gazed up at the sky and thought about that day long ago and what it must have been like.  The connection I felt to the Universe standing there on the edge was as strong a connection to space and time as I have ever experienced in my life.

Have you ever been to Australia?  I went in 1975 for a month to visit an exchange student who had spent the previous year in Tupelo.  She invited me, so I went.  I flew 18 hours with only a brief stop in Hawaii.  I didn’t even get off the plane until it landed in Sidney, which is on the bottom on the world, compared to the top half where Tupelo is located.  I took a tour of the city and a wonderful harbor cruise before flying out that night to Dubbo, New South Wales, where my friend and her family lived about 200 miles northwest of Sidney.  That whole first day in Australia I felt upside down, like I was standing on my head or pointing in the wrong direction, which actually I was considering where I had started.  It was a physical feeling of being out of sorts.  Everything looked the same, no different than if had I flown to New York City or over the Atlantic to London, but it sure felt different and upside down to me.

Now I know that most everyone has stood on the shore of an ocean at least once in their lives.  And I know that you felt that same tug or pull of something that is hard to put into words, a connection of some kind, a sense of belonging, of being home.  Did you know that your blood plasma, minus its cells, is chemically indistinguishable from sea water?  No wonder we always have these feelings as we stand in awe and look at the enormous expanse of ocean before us.  The feeling is the same no matter on which ocean beach you stand, and I’ve stood and looked at almost all of them.

What matters most about all of this is that we, the human animal, need to become aware of our connections to Creation, to the Universe itself, because we are a part of it and these connections are all around us all the time.  When you understand these connections, you better understand life.

© 2008 #2 Jim High can be reached at P. O. Box 467, Tupelo, MS 38802-0467