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January 02, 2008
Nothing New
In honor of the year flipping forward to 2008, I dedicated an entire day to relaxing which generally leads to thinking. I’m not sure why my thoughts fixated on the topic of ancestry and “roots” but they did. I spent some time imagining what they, my ancestors, may have been like. I envisioned family members in tie dye, flapper dresses, pilgrim hats, and Flintstone attire. Somehow this got me thinking about how much of what I KNOW has come from those who had gone before me. And that got me thinking about how much of what I OWN has belonged to someone else previously (virtually all my clothing, furniture, and décor are a result of hand-me-downage). This got me thinking about how everything I’M MADE OF has been part of or belonged to someone or something else before me too! By this I mean on a molecular level!
In order to explain this without “going geek on you” as my Science Olympics friends used to say, I’ll spare you a chemistry lesson on the breaking of chemical bonds and formation of new ones. Instead, I'll just say this: A long time ago my dad told me that ALL water stays in the biosphere FOREVER and all our cells are part of atoms that have been here since the dawn of time! Now, if that’s true--and it is according to most Christian and secular scientists--THEN it’s possible that the water moistening my eyes could have been sweat from an ancient dinosaur or part of a raindrop that fell on Noah’s ark, or maybe even the breath of Jesus himself!
Isn’t that incredible?
Everybody on the radio’s talking about newness and breaking from the past as we usher in 2008, and here I am feeling more ancient and connected to the past than ever before.
Happy new year you atoms of old! May God use each of us fearfully and wonderfully made creatures to do great things this year!
| By Heidi V. | 02:50 PM
Comments
hey buddy...we didn't watch the movie! i was quite partied out! sometime soon? *hugs*
Posted by: ange at January 2, 2008 07:29 PM
I was partied out too! My goodness. Jacob and I went to Blockbuster on New Years day to rent "Namesake" and I moseyed over to see if "Paris, Je'taime" was in and there was one copy left! I thought about grabbing it and calling you up, I'm not sure why I didn't. Soon. :)
Posted by: Heidi Vincent at January 3, 2008 09:35 AM
Nice, weird reflection, Heidi, and a neat way to connect us to the past even as we look to the future, which I agree is so important. I am glad someone else thinks in weird ways like this. I hope you will view that as a compliment. On the way back from Texas, as I drove for 14 hours in the car alone, I found myself becoming a little detached from my body and thinking how weird it was that I had to take all this time to move the mass of my body back from Texas to Illinois, whilst my minding was ranging everywhich way, and all of this taking a lot of energy to do so, recovered from the bodies of dead dinosaurs and ancient plants vis a vis gasoline. Oh course, I was readily reminded not to be a gnostic and the importance of my body in its connection to my mind and spirit as I needed to stop for food and the bathroom and to take pictures of a lovely sunset.
Posted by: Neil E. Das at January 3, 2008 12:58 PM
Neil, I appreciate the fact that you also have bizarre reflections, and I know what you mean about fighting the tendency to slip into Gnostic disconnectedness. At the same time, there is something exhilarating about exploring the minute and massive with the understanding that there is a great deal of mystery that our minds can't grasp. I don’t want to “murder to dissect” if you know what I mean ;)
Hey, I wish I had said more than a rushed "hi" at the party.
Posted by: Heidi Vincent at January 3, 2008 01:49 PM
No worries, New Year's Eve parties really aren't much for more than rushed "hi's" and gaiety. It was a fun party.
Posted by: Neil E. Das at January 3, 2008 04:06 PM