Heroes Not Zombies

You know the kind of fountain where the water collects into a pool, or basin, at the foot of the central spray? Well, spend a few moments looking at the surface of the water in there and you’ll see something pretty much like this……swirling patterns of flow around constantly appearing and disappearing bubbles.

It’s mesmerising.

I also think it’s a good metaphor for society. Each of us is like one of these bubbles….distinct, separate, yet connected. But we don’t live alone. The bigger bubbles are like groups of us. Several individuals living together sharing the same home, workplace, habits of living, beliefs or values.

How often do you hear the criticism of social media as a way of magnifying the effect of people living in bubbles? Only communicating with like minded others. Intensifying their exclusive world view, and so furthering divisions?

We do all live in our social bubbles, but if we remember this image we’ll remember that all the bubbles exist in the same pond. We are all connected. Our bubbles are transient and, actually, our sense of Self as separate, or our sense of group identity as separate, might be beautiful and attractive but, ultimately, it’s a limited way of understanding reality.

The reality is we all emerge from within the whole pond, the whole Earth, that we all live within the same environment, and that our separateness is a limited, transient, delusion.