Over this past weekend my daughters celebrated a friend's birthday. Their friend had just put together a Virtual Reality (VR) system. They were amazed at what it could do, and how their bodies were "tricked" by what they saw. As a for instance: one of my daughters enjoyed playing fetch with a virtual dog. However, when she went to walk outside the other side of the house, she noticed she was standing on a porch. Below the porch there was blackness. Did that mean shadow? Did that mean a drop off a cliff? She knew she was in her friend's room, but she couldn't force herself to step off the porch.
All in all, my daughters were amazed, but also left pondering the uses/misuses of VR. I think they have read too many sci-fi books (i.e. Ender's Game) and may have listened to their Dad's thinking. The friend's Dad jokingly made the comment, "I hope this doesn't mean my child stops going skiing with me because s/he is now Olympic quality on VR!"
Which brings me to the questions of this post: what is the nature of reality? How do we stay engaged in that Reality? How do our thoughts of reality make a difference in what we see?
If you haven't been reading Richard Rohr's Meditations over the last few weeks, I think your missing out on some good content. This week Cynthia Bourgeault has been a guest writer continuing to reflect upon the Trinity as a source of Reality. What has particularly caught my attention is Bourgeault's statement that the Trinity is inviting us out of a binary world view and into a creative, invigorating and innovative ternary. "Ternary systems have three independent forces coming together to form something new, a fourth thing."
Imagine the potentials here? What would it mean if we'd been tricking ourselves all along (like a good VR game) about the binary nature of reality. What if Realty was really ternary?
Enjoy your ponderings.
Blessed be,
Joel
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