Heroes Not Zombies

Thomas Berry (The Great Work) wrote that the Universe is a

community of subjects, not a collection of objects

….a simple little phrase which has the potential to radically alter your perspective.

If the Universe is a collection of objects, and every person, every animal and every plant is just such an object, then we’ll relate to others in a certain way. In fact, if we consider that all of Nature is a collection of objects, we’ll not only treat the other as an object, but we actually objectify ourselves. What does it mean to live as if you are a random, meaningless, occurrence of a machine-like thing?

If the Universe is a community of subjects, then we open ourselves up to becoming aware of the experience of the other, and to our relationship with them.  And we open ourselves up to the phenomena of subjectivity – from love to beauty, to pain and distress, to consciousness itself. What does it mean to live as if you are a unique, purposeful, utterly connected manifestation of the Life Force?

How we view the world profoundly influences our experience of it. We really do create our own lived worlds.