Sunday, December 4, 2011

Toenail Cell Peace

I was thinking about my toes this morning ... more specifically the cells in my big toenail.  Our bodies are made up of 50 TRILLION cells, give or take a few, and no one seems to know what holds them all together or makes them act in concert with each other.

Think about it ... 50 trillion individuals with no obvious glue that holds them together and no police force to make them do their jobs.  My toenail is a small community of cells and maybe they all know each other or have a little electronic newsletter to keep them up to date on what's happening in the surrounding areas.    However, I bet they don't know that there are 50 trillion cells all collaborating to make my body.  They just go on their way doing their toenail thing, living, dying, making way for new cells.

If we step up a notch, we have 7 BILLION collections of 50 TRILLION cells walking around on this planet we call home.  Here in my corner of the world, we do our jobs and stay in touch as best we can but, honestly, we really don't know what most of those other billions of folks are doing.

And, then we look at the pictures from the space probes and it looks like there are trillions or quadrillions of planets and stars beyond our one pale dot and we truly don't know what's holding all of them together either or what kind of newsletters they're sharing with each other.

All of this brought me to the last question.  What lies beyond the planets and stars?  My toenail cell can't conceive of my body as a whole, let alone the billions of people on this planet or the uncountable planets, galaxies and universes beyond that.  What if we are just as uncomprehending of the total magnitude of the infinity as that poor toenail cell?

What if we truly are just one cell in an infinite ... organism, universe, consciousness, words are way too limiting here, as limited in our understanding of the whole as is my poor little toenail cell?  However, maybe my toenail cell isn't limited at all.  Perhaps consciousness of the whole is what holds all the cells in my body together and my toenail cell shares that consciousness naturally without having to turn it into dogma ... or blogma.

If my toenail cell can live peacefully in a community of 50 trillion, I think it sets a wonderful example for the rest of us.

About this image:  The Radical Question -- This image took shape while thinking of toenails and consciousness.


4 comments:

  1. Don't you just love a good mystery!?

    Enjoyable read, Joyce.

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  2. What a perfect way to describe it ... it is the most engaging of mysteries ... I do wonder if we find out the ending in the Great Transition. In the meantime, we can continue knowing ... as Emily Dickinson said ... Mystery is the greatest need in the human soul.

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  3. For further insight, see Ps. 139 and Col. 1.

    ---ddb

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  4. Love the idea of mystery feeding our souls.

    Love this post.

    But seriously... 50 TRILLION?

    Wow!

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