...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 7-4: Jen on Genes

Jen said, "Thank you, Zeke. You're making it easy to talk about this. Sedna knew you would. I wasn't so sure, wasn't sure of my own thoughts."

"But you are more sure of them now. I'd like to hear them."

"Okay. Let me put it this way. The genetic code provides a basic vocabulary. DNA offers a recipe. All the recipes we know of are really quite similar. But what gets prepared from the recipe varies with the whims of the cook. The cook is influenced by the environment. That may affect the choice of ingredients, the way they're mixed.

"The cook makes choices in response to various influences, both external and internal. Such environmental resonances affect the way the recipe is expressed, and may alter the resulting form.

"Such a cook is a magical being, a spirit. We are all magical beings. The world is a magical place.

"Yesterday Bear said that every critter has its own shaman dream. It took me a while to understand what he meant. In fact, Sedna had to show me."

Zeke said, "She had to show me, too. She had already primed us all with the World Dream. But in spite of that, in spite of the glorious revelations I experienced from it, I remained convinced that the world is ineffable." Zeke glanced at Sedna, but her avatar face revealed nothing. "In fact, the world is effable after all. But only in bits and pieces."

"Exactly. As I tried to think it all through last night, I had to conclude that in a sense we are eternal along with the world. Our mundane world is in fact a miracle. Birth is a miracle. Death is a miracle. The division of a cell is a miracle. The growth and development of a child is a miracle. These miracles only seem commonplace because they are commonplace to us. They are not commonplace to the universe. Our very existence is a cosmic miracle.

"It's the cosmic miracle the cosmos exists to enable. The growth and development of a child exists to prove that a child can exist. Once this is proven, the precedent is established. The cosmos does not need the growth and development to recur every instant to maintain the existence of the child in Now.

"The continuity of Now, from one Now to the next, is not a requirement of the cosmos. The cosmos contains all Nows as possibilities. The developmental sequence is illusion. The illusion of development is encoded in the Now. The only test of that record in the next Now is the existence in its record of sufficient precedent. Whatever is possible can exist."

Sedna was looking straight at Jen. All she said was, "Wow." Zeke was looking equally impressed.

Jen said, "That brings us to the reason we are meeting here. The only determiner of the actual is agreement. What's agreed upon in Now is what exists in Now. There's no arbiter of that agreement. It's a complete democracy. Each smallest particle has a vote. And particles are witness to their own precedent of existence, their own precedents of association.

"A particle will allow any Now that agrees with its own precedents. Within each Now each particle has an infinite range of possible precedents, and an equally infinite range of possible next Nows. The associations winnow the possibilities, but only to a smaller infinity. Thus almost anything that is physically possible is actually possible.

"But we are nonphysical. And we too have a say. We are the whisper that resonates in the Q. It's our intent that, moment by moment, winnows the possible to the actual Now.

"Again, it's a complete democracy. Every least element of awareness has a voice, and a vote. Only, some voices speak with more resonance than others, gather more intent to their vision."

Jen looked at Sedna. "Am I right so far?" Sedna only nodded. Zeke looked more impressed than ever.

Jen continued. "I think this is how a shaman, through intent, can orchestrate the vision of a group. That this is the sum and substance of a shaman's power. It's to be aware of a group, and to orchestrate its agreement.

"But this is a power available to all. What sets the shaman apart is only the awareness of this power, and the willingness to use it.

"From this we see that a shaman, to use this power, must get agreement from the group that what the shaman wants to happen can and should happen. Even agreement that it is inevitable. The stronger the agreement, the more inevitable the act becomes."

Jen leaned back, took a breath, and looked at her audience. They were paying attention. So she said, "Ryan and Rosita have no problem convincing a group of sea lions that they can be sea lions too. The sea lions are strong believers in sea lions. But now we are proposing to ask people to become believers in the idea that people can become sea lions. And then become people again.

"We have five people here who are complete believers. We have two who are willing to believe. We think we have many more who will be willing to believe if we ask them to.

"The question is, should we?

Zeke said, "As you pointed out, it's a complete democracy. Let's put it up for a vote."