To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.from ‘Auguries of Innocence’ by William Blake
Infinity, rightly, freaks us out. For instance, there are infinitely more points between the ends of any line you can draw on your palm than there are nanometers on a line from here to the end of an infinite universe. There are infinitely more tasks that we could do or decisions we could make than we ever will have time for. And there are infinitely more opportunities for fun and success coming our way that we could ever imagine taking advantage of.
Faced with all this infinity, we might be tempted to curl up and hide, feeling insignificant. Or we attempt to do it all. Or try to be the big cheese of own little cheese market.
But there’s a better way. We can accept infinity as the way the world works. We can revel in it all. We can delight in choosing this versus that. And in getting to choose again and again. We can use infinity as our palate, fuel source, and all-round great place to live this life.
In your corner,
Mike
Today’s photo credit: Ram Viswanathan cc