Earth Day

It’s a quantum thing. That’s what we say around our house. I’m not really sure what it means, but that might be the point. It might even be the definition.

As far as I can tell, it means that observation of an object affects its condition. Observation affects or changes its reality. That means that, just by reading this, you are changing the very nature of these words.

Let me try to make that clearer. As a result of what your beliefs are, in combination with your intention and the intensity of both, you can affect the reality of an object or a person or a situation.

At first, I thought, sure. Little old me. How can this be? My wife, whose curiosity knows no bounds, has been reading about this, searching the literature, and has gone to great lengths to find out about this stuff and to acquaint me with enough of it that, in conversation, I can do more than just look at her like a dumbbell.

It must be her belief, and her intention, that I can learn something and be able to understand her, at least in this context. What I have learned, with her help, is that, through rigorous experimentation, this quantum kind of activity has been proven true. In fact, it revolutionizes our scientific understanding of reality.

Scientists know this stuff, and have for a while, but it is just now making itself known to the public. Guys, like myself, who had an understanding of physics based on shooting pool or trying to fix things around the house, are finally becoming acquainted with these ideas. And, about time, my wife says.

It’s wonderful. Just when things were beginning to seem incredibly bleak, dark, and despairing, we find out that each one of us has the power to affect whatever we turn our thoughts to. Saints and sages have told us this from the start, but I always thought it was wishful thinking, a matter of faith, more than a little beyond my reach. Now, with this scientific corroboration, a wider, more brilliantly lit set of possibilities is revealed.

I’m not going to use this knowledge for trivial things, like toasting bagels or making my television larger. I’m not even going to use it for personal gain, although I am going to use it for personal loss. As in, the pounds I have to carry around and the inches that mark a small and recent expansion around my waist.

No, I want to use it for the big stuff. The things that affect all of us. The things I have, up to this time, felt were out of my hands. War, peace, disease, poverty, ignorance, and disastrous climate change. It has now been proven, by hard-working people in white coats, toiling in cramped office space at our great universities and in garages everywhere, that optimism and a directed intense visualization of a desired outcome can actually make things change.

The past 300 years of scientific assumption is incorrect. We, each of us, have a part to play in this life. A part that has meaning and actual effects. That is an amazing thing and, understanding it, creates an opportunity and responsibility we never knew we had.

There are many areas and issues that are in need of our attention. To me, the most timely and most crucial seems to be the state of the Environment. The health of our planet, this wonderful world we all inhabit. It is generally recognized now that we are in a dire situation. To mention just a few areas of concern, we have melting ice caps, pollution, radical changes in weather patterns, a declining supply of fresh water, and the disappearance of bees. I don’t want to look up at the sky and feel afraid. I want us to have the peace of mind to think about other things like how beautiful the flowers are or how we might help someone not as lucky as we are or how we can assist our kids’ imagination, compassion, and forward momentum.

What I wanted to say, at the beginning of all this, was that we can use this quantum stuff as one way to affect our world with our hearts and minds, applying our intention and energy and emotion to make things better for all of us.

This Earth, this big old ball of blue, this beautiful whirling dervish that we live on, needs our help. We’re smarter now. We understand the situation. And, we’re not powerless. That’s the lesson of Earth Day. We can realize a consciousness we didn’t have before and resolve the shortsightedness that has been causing us so much pain.

I’m going to try it out. And, keep trying until I get it right. Happy Earth Day! Go outside. Take a deep breath. Celebrate. It’s difficult to deny reality, but we can change it.