The Thin Vertical Line of Light, Transcendence, and Freedom

We have what we call a mudroom at our house. It's the room that leads to the backdoor and has stairs that lead down to the basement door. There is a glass door on the top level of the mudroom that leads to the backyard. Usually when not locked, this door sits open about a quarter or half inch or so. On the other side of the room are the stairs to the bottom level of the mudroom.

From the kitchen door you can watch the mudroom and see out into the backyard. Sometimes I will stare outside and watch my dogs play or just think. Once in a while, flies or even wasps will get inside the mudroom when letting the dogs in or out, and then not be able to get back outside.

But there is a way back outside. It's the vertical quarter inch gap that the glass door sits open when not latched. So in all the space of the mudroom, there is only that think vertical line in which to escape back out. The chances of the flying insect finding that path out is slim.

As I was contemplating this one day it occurred to me that the situation of the flying insects trapped in the mudroom is not unlike my own search for enlightenment and evolution. I seek to evolve and understand and transcend what I perceive to be 'ordinary reality'. Watching Star Trek The Next Generation last night, in season 2's first episode, Captain picard talks about what death is, when asked by Commander Data. He responds basically that he would like to believe that beyond death and beyond our current understanding and concepts, is a greater reality that our existence is a part of.

This is the thin vertical line in our lives. That thing we are trying to find. It's hard to see, hard to get to, hard to understand, but it is definitely there.

We spend time flying around in vain smashing against clear glass windows, or even flying downward into a dark bottom level of a room filled with spiders. To take this elaborate metaphor even further, the flying insects in the mudroom will sometimes journey down the stairs to the bottom level of the mudroom. A dank, dingy room filled with massive spiderwebs in the corners. (I leave them alone because spiders kill termites etc). So some of these insects, rather then finding the thin vertical line to transcendence and freedom, might end up as a meal in a spider's web. Taking wrong turns in dark places and ending up trapped. (Unless of course I let them out, which I usually try to do).

This metaphor reminds me once of an experience I had at an art gallery near the river market in Kansas City. There was a sculpture set up that involved a figure on a wheel that would balance on a wire. There was a motor and a chain that would cause the figure to go back and forth on the wire. I was staring at the chain in a moment of sublimity I thought was only mine. There was a real bug, no relation to the scultpure, who had found his way onto the chain that was in motion. He was trying to crawl upwards but only managed to stay in place, because the chain was going the opposite direction. I stood mesmerized by this strange microcosmic event when another man behind me also saw what was happening. He verbalized that it was like all of us, trying to make our way and only staying in place. Like the grand sculpture was the universe and we, humans, were the little bug.  We agreed it was an interesting and strange thing.

Do I have a message in these strange metaphors? Only that maybe we should continue to search for that thin vertical line. Even when it seems like you're only barely managing to hold yourself in place, keep trying. Remember that the soul is only being housed in this body temporarily, so take advantage. Look for what Hendrix called the Axis. It's the thing that can cause you to evolve. It could be the greater understanding of the universe. It's a more true reality. What Picard said is beyond our current concepts of understanding in this world. Don't stop looking for it. It does exist. We can evolve.