"Consider the lilies of the field: they neither toil nor do they spin.
And yet I say unto thee that even Solomon in all his glory was not
attired as one of these."
...
Jesus Christ
quoted by Matthew the apostle
An acorn is an oak tree. Say whut? And an oak tree is an
acorn. Of course. It's the same entity connected by a thread of time
(if you will) yes? Tiny acorns become mighty oak trees. Mighty oak
trees begin as tiny acorns. You plant a tiny acorn. It becomes a mighty
oak tree. You see a mighty oak tree. It's what an acorn became. And
notice none of your approval of or vote on the process, nor any
understanding of it, is required. Tiny acorns will become
mighty oak trees. Hoping they'll grow tall and become
mighty oak trees, isn't necessary. It's not even a prerequisite that
you should have green
fingers.
The process happens anyway (it does, doesn't it?).
That's the count-on-able way acorns grow in the ordinary view of
things. In the extraordinary view of things, notice tiny acorns don't
have to plan or know how to become mighty oak trees.
Neither do they have to hear or read and follow any instructions on how
to become them. They don't have to figure anything out. And none
of us have to coerce, cajole, or implore them along the way, to ensure
they stay on track to becoming mighty oak trees. The tiny acorns'
metamorphosis into mighty oak trees, is inevitable,
inexorable,
automatic, unwavering, and
relentless.
You could say acorns becoming oak trees is a completely automatic
mechanism of
Life itself.
Now consider that in certain essential albeit unexamined
ways, human beings are a lot like acorns ... like we begin tiny, then
we become mature and mighty; like our growth is inevitable,
inexorable,
automatic, unwavering, and
relentless;
like we couldn't slow our metamorphosis down even if we tried to. So
maybe we could learn something about living life
authentically from tiny acorns by
observing
the differences between how they do life, and the way we human beings
are thrown to do life.
This vantage point is a
platform
on which to stand and look. It's an
analogy,
an implement with which to conduct an inquiry. With it in place, the
differences between the way acorns do life, and the way we humans
beings are thrown to do life, are substantiated. For starters,
acorns don't struggle with the process. Acorns don't
worry
and fret about how it's all going to turn out. Acorns don't try to make
it turn out differently than the way it's already turned out. Acorns'
resulting power and majesty as mighty oak trees were guaranteed from
the get-go with no intervention required on their part. Human
beings on the other hand, spend inordinate amounts of time
worrying
and fretting about how life is going to turn out. We're run by
worry.
We try to make it turn out differently than that way it's already
turned out. And when we confront it, we get to know that's a hopeless
endeavor, that it's doomed to fail. Yet even though we know it's doomed
to fail, we keep doing it anyway. We're driven (no we're
compelled) to scheme about how to survive. Consumed by
scheming, we fail to notice scheming itself is a
completely automatic mechanism of
Life itself.
If you and I were less invested in the way we've concluded (often
erroneously) what must be true about how to survive life,
we could learn a lot that's profound from the tiny acorn - such as: the
tiny acorn's future's assured, no scheming is required. We could
learn a lot that's profound from the mighty oak tree too - such as:
simply being what it is, the mighty oak tree gives eloquent testimony
to its majestic,
magnificenttransformation
that required no doing whatsoever on the part of the
acorn.
Life itself
has totally pre-programmed tiny acorns to become mighty oak trees.
Life itself
has also pre-programmed baby human beings to become fully functioning
adults. There's nothing for us to do to have that happen except not
interfere with the process. Now unlike tiny acorns, human beings
are also endowed with the power to generate
contexts
and to invent possibilities. In all other respects, there's not much
difference between acorns and us humans regarding our automaticity. Our
lives turn out the way they turn out, in the face of which human beings
transform
and generate
contexts
and invent possibilities, and tiny acorns become mighty oak trees.