You, Me, David Niven and the Universe

About three this morning I woke up with the perfect introduction to this post. And I remember thinking at the time that I'll never remember this because those great ideas that we have in our dreams never stick around. But when I got up the thought was still there. I went, "Cool." Then I fed the cat and brushed my teeth, answered a phone call and watched the news and checked my email. And then I looked around for my great intro from three a.m. to find it gone. Fickle things, those dream thoughts.

It was about how many of us live our life from a myopic viewpoint. We have to because it's the stuff closest to us that affects us more often than not. It's the little dog nipping at our heels that gets our attention, not the big one on the other side of the fence. And when we're that used to looking at stuff up close it's no wonder that when we look up and try to make sense of the big picture that our vision is a bit blurred. It's like looking at something fuzzy but still there. Like a thought in a dream. It takes a few blinks to focus. Or corrective lenses. (Telescopes, on the other hand don't help. They just see things far away.)

Maybe we're all just absorbed in trying to being perfect or pay the bills or we have David Niven dancing with Deborah Kerr in a corner of our mind, saying, "Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don`t take anything too seriously, it'll all work out in the end."

The above diagram is a crass generalization of course, because there are a million variations. Everyone's would be different based on their circumstances. And I didn't have the time to do everyone's. But you get the idea.

I don't consider this exercise a neurotic fixation on the big picture but more a conversation about the value of putting our relationships with others in their place. Being conscious of the big picture and where we are in relation to the influences around us, as we all move toward the future, helps us stop being freaked so often. And it permits us to recognize and ignore whatever is not important.

Gotta go. Somewhere in society cowbells are ringing and I have to go ignore them consciously.

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Thanks for the feedback from FB friends who were kind enough to comment on a rough of this graphic. Thanks to Ron (who wanted more "you"... and cowbells), Linda who agreed about the cowbells thing, Kristy who thought the area that was then "things that are not possible" should really be "pie in the sky things", and Vonnie who thought the "you" should be closer to the "me". And thanks also to Manda, Charlotte, Christine and Jen for validation and moral support.