Down A Rabbit Hole

Where have I been?  Down A Rabbit Hole.

I’m Late!

For those who do not know, the phrase (originally “Down The Rabbit Hole”) comes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when Alice follows the rabbit and ends up in Wonderland.   It has since appeared as a metaphor in various forms and meanings, which now most often is, “we got interested in something to the point of distraction.”  and it all started with the image of a rabbit with a pocket watch racing along, saying, “I’m Late!”

It’s Not ADD!

I am really susceptible to this, going down rabbit holes, from way back in childhood when I would read the Encyclopedia for fun.  Does anyone remember encyclopedias?  Before Wikipedia, which I salute by the way, compendia of knowledge were printed in multi volume sets, where thousands of topics were summarized to give the reader basic facts.

At the bottom there would be a section that said, ‘see also’ and list other articles that overlapped the topic.  You would go to one of them, and there would be others at the bottom of that one, and so on, until where you started was far removed from where you are.  Wikipedia only makes that easier – a mere click – and in an hour you are reading about the rise of the Sassanian empire having started with Hamas.

And if you think that’s a sign of ADD you’re wrong.  It is the nature of knowledge itself.

“Everything, Everywhere, All At Once”

Just watched the movie this week (I have no need to be current) which is all about multiverse ideas.  That idea is all the rage, but this one universe (uni means one, remember?) is itself “everything, everywhere, all at once.”  That famous poetic lunatic William Blake, way back in 1803 started “Auguries of Innocence” with

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

What I am saying is that reality is a rabbit hole.  Nothing is discrete; all is entangled.  This snapped into place for me back in the 197os with a PBS hosted British series, “Connections,” where James Burke,

“begins each episode with a particular event or innovation in the past (usually ancient or medieval times) and traces the path from that event through a series of seemingly unrelated connections to a fundamental and essential aspect of the modern world.”

The Meaning Driven Life

Contra Rick Warren, what we want is a meaning driven life, one that seeks understanding.  And the path to that life is one rabbit hole after another, until Blake makes actual sense.

I would say our “purpose” is to find “meaning,” which is what Pilgrim Life is about.  You can do it wandering the world, or exploring rabbit holes through book or screens.

The key is to seek meaning, but also suspect all the claims that ‘this is the meaning of life,’ such as Joy’s Cosmic Everything Bagel or Rick Warren’s Christianity.

All pilgrims eventually realize there is no end point, just the next point, the next rabbit hole.