We're all connected. To each other biologically. To the Earth chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.
-Carl SaganNOTE: This little essay of mine might seem totally unrelated to furries at first, but please read it until the end. It'll make sense in the last paragraph.
Look around you. Do you see matter, both living and dead in your surroundings? Yes? I want you to look at every object in your presence and think of where it all came from. What you see can be traceable to processes both industrial and natural. Next to me is a stereo receiver, a gameboy, a desk, my computer and monitor, some old moldy food, a fly, and thousands of bacterial colonies. Outside my window is a forest, filled with organisms of incomprehensible numbers. Downstairs is my dog. And then there is me. Stop and think about each of these items. What is their purpose, and where do they all really come from? Each man-made object serves a purpose to us, and has an intricate and interesting history behind their development. And the natural objects exhibit a feeling of awe and ecstasy to a scientist comparable to spiritual enlightenment.
The gameboy alone, a primitive computer for playing cheesy electronic games exhibits the pinnacle of ingenuity in man's mind and accomplishments throughout the last three centuries. What you you hold in your hands when you play a gameboy is a device so alien and advanced that you would have been thought to have been a wizard or witch in only 1930s America. But it's not just technology that fascinates us from this device. We humans have evolved to the point where we can create a simulated and abstract world, removed from reality and with it's own rules. What power of the human mind it must take to comprehend such a concept. At the same time, the gameboy exhibits the dark side of man. What kind of borderline slave labor was required to manufacture these millions of plastic devices? How much pollution was released in creating the petroleum products required in the device's manufacturing process. But then if you look beyond the engineering and creative aspects of the gameboy, there's much to be said about the process alone. The man-made objects in my room were all transported from thousands of miles away and synthesized from natural resources across the planet. We can trace the origins of all man-made creations to the chemical elements on Earth.
Now let's look at the mold, forest, and bacteria again. Surrounding me is every type of classifiable life known to man. There animals, fungus, plants, and micro-organisms merely feet from me. To most people, they simply ignore these organisms as ordinary. But to me the world looks different. I see the unique and similar biological processes amongst all these organisms. I see complex ecosystems that seem just as alive as the individual organisms. I see chemical processes and the laws of physics working 24-7 and forever. And most fascinatingly, I see the 4 billion years of evolution in every organism. Our ancestors were as humble as organic compounds floating in hot water. But the laws of the cosmos allowed that matter to become living. From a combination of chemical processes dictated by natural law involving heat, carbon, electricity, water, and ultraviolet radiation, arose the first micro organisms. And from these primitive beings arose all the life you see around us. You and I are related, just as my dog is related to you and I, and that fly as well. Even the grass around us is our cousin. The thread of evolution connects us all. We can trace the origins of all life to the Earth.
And we can trace the Earth to the Stars, and the stars to the rest of the Cosmos. The stars are our ancestors too. All material on Earth was initially produced in the natural factories and furnaces of the stars. The steel used in the stereo receiver next to me has its origin too traced to the sun, just as the carbon in you is also traceable to the stars. Our sun is hardly the first star; rather it came from the star stuff of a previous supernova. Matter spreads across the galaxy over billions of years. At one point, that gameboy's plastic was a dinosaur; and perhaps at another point, the dinosaur was an electronic device on a long gone planet in a distant galaxy. Even the background radiation from distant stars has affected evolution by causing genetic mutations. Everything and everyone is connected in the deepest and most profound ways imaginable.
So what does this all have to do with Furry? To me, everything. Amidst the role playing, socializing, artwork, and imagination related to anthropomorphic creatures stands as a reminder in multiple ways to how truly connected and deep we are. A furry is someone in touch and connected with nature. We are not separate from nature or masters over it; we've sprung from it. The animal kingdom is not our monarchy; we are its subjects. I'm no therianthropist, but I certainly empathize with where they come from. At a more abstract level, the furry fandom is a prime contender for a case study in the creativity and imagination of the human mind. How fascinating that we can project ourselves into an alternate body, yet maintain our spirit. It took at least 4.5 billion years on Earth for a species to ever reach such a level of abstract thought (unless an intelligence other than us once existed or exists). Our minds are part of a great computer faster and smarter than even the Titan super computer. The computer is the collective of all life on Earth and the potential for the entire planet to be a super-organism. Furries are people who know this very well, consciously or subconsciously. This fandom is about love above all. And the greatest love one can experience is knowing that in the eyes of the Cosmos, everyone is connected and one.
