We are so disconnected, aren't we? This should be rather obvious by the appetite we seem to have culturally for trying to be connected. But, nearly everyone acknowledges that whatever this type of connectness seems to portray, it is largely not real. At the very least, it is mostly unsatisfying.
The irony is that despite the variety of its chaos, the universe practically screams about its inner-connectedness. Maybe that's proof right there, we want what it has - wild, abandoned, and still connected...everywhere.
We could learn a lot, if we would just pay attention to what is already -- what is all around us. The Aspen tree is actually like a vine that grows underground in an inter-connected web that sprouts up in the form that we would call trees (lots of imagery here...). Perhaps, this is emblematic of a much larger vine that all things feed from as they relate to the world.
I recently heard the end of a clip on NPR about Tolkien's interest, even affection for plants and in particular trees. He was very interested in this idea of connectedness and the need we have to participate in it, as the real world. His 'underworld' was really a call-out to reality and he used the forces of nature to illustrate it.
The truth is...we are all connected, to everything. The problem is...that we're seeking something we already have and that has actually created disconnection. From our world, from each other, from God.
