“How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul.” Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

Bear with me.

Let us say (in the metacognitive and metaphysical sense) that the fundamental structure of the universe that bridges what we know about general relativity to the quantum level–the so-called, “theory of everything”–however complex, obscure, and expansive in nature, is not an abstraction, but something imbedded in all things. That every piece of our universe, however small or subtle, carries within it the same source code.

Within this theoretical framework, the fractal mathematics that drive a single-cell organism to evolve into a human being could (if reversed) be the same mathematics that ultimately, under the right circumstances, lead a star to collapse into a black hole or go supernova.

This self-replicating structure could be described as “quantum chaos” at its simplest state. Consider how binary inputs in a computer (0 s and 1 s) in a particular sequence ultimately add up to patterns that self-replicate into complex multi-dimensional digital worlds.

In the same way, we can (meta-cognitively speaking) reverse-engineer the collective cells that make up one’s body to their origins as a zygote:

egg [0] + sperm [1].

In the same way, complex patterns of human behavior–if tracked with, say, the right algorithm/multi-platform/multi-purpose tool (cough)–could be reverse-engineered into simplified formulas that are (presumably) predictable in their structure, and therefore (theoretically) control-able in there binary input.

This might be why tech-billionaires so desperately want access not just to our money, but to our data.

Like all those ruled by fear and unchecked power, they seek to map, manipulate, and exploit the binary patterns that shape human existence. From the quantum level [small choices] to the cosmic level [collective destiny of entire civilizations].

If we are, figuratively or literally, made in “God’s image”–or, the universe’s image if you prefer–it holds true our modern society need not seek meaning, power, or divinity outside ourselves; the mind becomes not only a product of the universe; it is a reflection of that universe–the universe itself (or, “the universe’s self”): a living manifestation of the same laws that govern galaxies.

If our brains are the universe self-replicating into consciousness, then the forces that drive human nature must be built upon a universal law.

I believe that law is resonance.

A frequency. A feeling. A connection so fundamental it moves through us as memory, carried into this world by way of the body, felt in the tuning of the heart, and translated through the lens of the psyche where calculation and source connect, the means by which we can synthesize the greatest tool at our disposal–awareness–with the greatest gift the universe could ever offer beings such as we:

Love.

The world, as it is, insists compassion relegated to the outer realms of possibility; that empathy is manipulation; that forgiveness is weak. But these are insecurities that coax us into nightmares we mistake for the dream—nightmares we attempt to expel when dreams grow stale and wounded hearts carry on ignored, our fear fed endless doubt.

Love—real love, the kind that breaks all boundaries and reinterprets what it means to be alive, to be human, to be a biological instrument of the infinite song—resonates at a frequency that resists hatred. Love faces darkness head-on, not in the absence of fear, but in the presence of honesty. If all of us were to look both in and around us with honesty intact and honesty pursued, we would–I think–refuse outright to let the injustices of our time mold us into the shadows on Plato’s wall, intended not to entice the better angels of our nature, but to seduce us into masks to retreat behind, into the very demons we conjure by the shape of our own hand.

I ration my awareness of the injustice in the world. I tell myself that self-care means turning away from the headlines, the public discord–the endless parade of news that tells of democracy eroding, of dehumanization normalizing, of happiness as a thing increasingly bought or won or stolen.

And at the same there always lingers the pull towards gratitude, towards appreciating the simple fact that I woke up this morning, that I am here, that I exist.

I am.

But self-care must never become complacency. When gratitude for survival is twisted into an excuse to ignore, to deflect, to defend cruelty, we risk sleepwalking into complicity. It is easier to believe that those who protest in the streets are the problem, rather than the injustices that brought them there. Easier to believe that kneeling during an anthem is more offensive than the police brutality it condemns. That students standing against genocide are the ones disrupting education, rather than the geopolitical forces that demand such outcry.

We are told to be grateful for what we have, no matter what is taken. We are told to be patient, to be nice, to be quiet. That maybe, if we behave, we will one day be given what we should have had all along:

Autonomy. Sanctuary. Home.

If we choose empathy over indifference, truth instead of comfort, and love despite whatever fear may follow, we can end this nightmare before it beckons us any further. We can wake to something better. We need not be pitted against one another while those who actually control things hoard wealth, strip away our rights, and ethnically cleanse almost 2 million people to build beach condos.

In his opening monologue at the 2020 Golden Globes, Ricky Gravies famously said of Hollywood celebrities known for using acceptance speeches as a platform for political stands, “Just come up, accept your little award, and sit the fuck down. You are the wealthiest people in the world. You are in no position to lecture anyone about anything.”

And I understand this point of view. I myself have done little in my life worthy of accolade or acclaim thus far.

And yet—if no one stands, if no one speaks, then…what?

When everyone sits for something, nobody stands for anything.

Listen.

Love.

Speak.