Reality is a Storyteller

I think it’s trying to tell us something right now…

Some people call it Reality, the Universe… technical folks may call it the Unified Field and religious people may call it God. I like to call it “Salty Pete” because I think “It” has a sense of humor and “It” might think that’s pretty funny. But whatever “It” is, I’m pretty sure it’s trying to tell us something. Maybe a few things, actually. Some of it is good, and some of it… you know… Murder-Hornets.

“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.” ― Werner Heisenberg

Besides very strong quotes like that one, Professor Heisenberg is even better known for his famous “Uncertainty Principle,” which, to my unscientific mind seems to be saying that the more closely we look at something, the less certain we can be what it is. That is putting it in extreme layman’s terms, which hopefully makes it okay that I don’t really understand it. But that’s also kind of the point, isn’t it? Look again at that quote. He’s telling us that we really aren’t going to get it any time soon, because “It” is simply over our heads.

I’m not a scientist (duh), but I am a storyteller. And as such, I know a metaphor when I see one. And I see them pretty much everywhere. I suspect that is Salty Pete’s doing.

Translating the muse

I think Salty Pete is a storyteller, too. I think “It” is the muse who puts ideas in the heads of willing writers and artists so they can tell us things we probably ought to hear. The “classics,” like how Odysseus sailed all around the Mediterranean for ten long years before he threw the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom and finally found his way back to Kansas via the Yellow Brick Road. Our how Moses was placed as an infant into a basket of reeds and launched into space by his father, Darth Vader, moments before the planet Krypton exploded, sending his only son to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

Those big myths are so consistent in their characters, plots, and story beats throughout time, they often feel like “It” is talking, and the writers and artists are translating. They have the ring of instruction to them.

“So You’ve Been Born a Human Being: Top 5 Obstacles You’ll Face,” or “How to be Better at Being You: 10 Simple Hacks to Get Through Life.”

The Finger and the Moon

Like a game of phone tag, our second-hand translations can be a problematic means of communicating the kind of complex themes Salty Pete likes to work with. Our tendency to confuse the details of the story with the message causes wrong turns from time to time.

There is a Zen parable about a sage who says nothing but simply points to the moon in the sky. His disciples rush to gather around him only to spend all their time studying his hand, wondering at the deeper meaning of that one finger, but never looking where it points.

Direct Communication

Of course, “It” also does a lot of its own talking directly, unfiltered by the artifice of go-betweens like Homer, Tolkien, or Stan Lee. I think “It” is pretty much always trying to tell us something and speaks in physical manifestations which are also, at the same time, metaphors.

Sometimes this occurs as a comforting story, like how the seasonal cycles of the tree outside your window tell you that death is not the end and that ultimately there is nothing to fear.

But Salty Pete also knows that fear is a motivator for change and personal growth. So, sometimes the messages are a little worrisome like, “you folks do notice the water levels rising, right? How long has it been since I told you the one about the Ark?”

And sometimes it’s a little more urgent and happens in real-time like… “so now you people can see that a tiny virus can shut this shit down, right? I can force you to stop driving and clean the air over Los Angeles in two weeks anytime I want to. Oh, grounded for six weeks isn’t enough for you, buster? Okay, how about a year? How about two? I can do this all day!”

And sometimes, when Salty Pete feels like he’s just banging his head against a wall because no one is listening, or maybe when he’s had too much to drink, it just turns into a lot of yelling. That’s when you see headlines like “Murder-Hornets spotted in the United States!”

Ho. Ly. Shit. There’s Murder-Hornets, now!?

The Cosmic Giggle

But whatever it is Salty Pete may or may not be on about, we keep not quite getting these messages because we are never quite sure if “It” is real, or if “It” is really talking or not. Or, if “It” really is talking, maybe It is just pulling our leg. Maybe that is the point of characters like Loki, Coyote, Raven, and Bugs Bunny… the trickster gods in our stories have already told us over and over… it’s “not just stranger than we think, it’s stranger than we can think.”

In today’s world in which everyone has a voice and a platform, yet every word we speak in public gets us immediately labeled and placed into a box that only the placer truly understands, it is very difficult to talk about reality.

So let me say this now in case it was unclear before. I’m not talking specifically about anybody’s religion pro or con. I’m not going to tell you what I believe (other than in metaphor) and I don’t mind what you believe unless it involves the need to kill me (or if you don’t like Star Trek).

Here, instead, is how far my inadequate attempts at understanding take me.

The Kiddie Pool of the Universe

Because I am more clever than the bird that flew into my sliding glass door shortly after I cleaned it, because I am wiser than some people but less wise than my wife, I can see that I exist in a continuum. And so do you. If you are smarter than your dog, but not smarter than at least one other person (and what a terror that would be if you or I were “the smart one” out of us all, right?), and if you are aware that there are 7 billion other people on this planet of which you show up somewhere in the middle, billions of planets in this galaxy and billions of galaxies in this universe, and perhaps infinite other universes in parallel with our own… then there must, by principles of probability, be levels of intelligence in your reality that are well beyond yours, or your clever spouse’s, or every other human on this one little planet.

Accept that as fact and even the most ardent materialist will admit that there is more than dreamt of in our philosophy because our philosophy is simply not up to the task of reality just yet.

Or, to put it in a simpler metaphor, we are all in the Kiddie Pool of the Universe. Yes, we can drown if we aren’t careful. And yes, some of us are peeing in the water at this very moment. But, we are also learning how to swim, play well with others, and preparing ourselves for bigger things later on.

Whatever “It” is, call it “God” or the “Universe” or “Salty Pete” if you want to… or maybe, as the recently popular theory suggests, we are all in some kind of simulation, which might make “It” a 14-year-old kid playing a video game. I don’t know. Maybe I can’t know. And maybe it’s better that way.

But regardless of what you or I believe, whether it makes us comfortable or frightened, there is, with mathematical certainty, a higher reality that exists on a higher plane than ours.

Add to that bit of pseudo-rationality a bit of art, and we can see something else about reality. It speaks to us in metaphors. All the time.

Salty Pete is a Storyteller

“Alles Vergängliche Ist nur ein Gleichnis” — Goethe

Those are some of Germany’s best words. From Goethe’s “Faust.” They say, “All that is transitory is just a parable.”

Or as Joseph Campbell rephrased it for emphasis, “All that is not eternal is only a metaphor.”

All of it. There are messages written in the trees, in the water, in our actions and reactions.

In all that fades, you will find a story.

Either by hook or by crook, by carrots or by sticks, either with direct action or through our art as we try to grasp and translate what is so tantalizingly just beyond our reach, “It” seems to be trying to tell us something about ourselves that is probably really important.

The Maltese Falcon is the stuff dreams are made of.

The Force is with you. Always.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road because it will take you where you need to go.

Salty Pete is a storyteller.