Solace

Our dog died last week. Actually, we euthanized her. I was there. I felt quite sad.

It’s a most remarkable thing: to be alive one moment, and then, for the rest of eternity, to not exist.

I’m not your traditional “man of faith”. I don’t really believe the dog went somewhere. I have faith that I will effectively deal with stuff, but I don't have faith in things like an afterlife.

On the other hand I do have a certain perspective that I call upon at times like this. I would like to share it with you.

People think in terms of three-dimensions-plus-time. That's pretty much a given. Kant even said it a few hundred years ago. That our brains take space and time as givens is built right into our consciousness. And, when someone dies, and time marches on as it does, we only have our memories.

Yup, that’s pretty sad.

But let’s incorporate a few more facts. Or, if you will, let’s look at the matter from the universe’s point of view.

Join me in thinking for a moment about how the universe is made up of not just 3 or 4 dimensions, but, at last count, according to what I've read, 11 dimensions. Yes, if you haven’t heard this before, mathematicians, physicists and others operate on the principle that there are more dimensions in our world than height, width, depth, and time. Some say, for example, that space is somehow “curled up” in the other dimensions at some deeper, perhaps sub-atomic, level. It is certainly over my head.

But what’s not over my head is this: if you imagine the universe and all of its dimensions as just some incredibly big thing, as ONE big thing — all of the past, all of the future, all of the dimensions — gosh darned, just existence itself — then everything just “is”. It's not that there is no time, it's that the past, present, and future are just one thing, one dimension--interwoven with all the other dimensions into one hugely big thing.

So, my dog is not gone. She continues to exist in the universe. Sure, from my narrow, human view there’s an “oh-my-god-she’s-gone” reaction; but, from the universe’s point of view — nope. Rosie is still here. Always was. Always will be.