Shadow Rabbits

Wrapping our minds around the concept of a fifth dimension of space-time is an almost impossible task. Because we exist within the boundaries of three dimensions, our limited senses as humans prevent us from seeing the larger picture. Reality is merely a hologram--a sense of the entire picture, but transparent and uncertain.

Each time we're in a dark room and someone feels inspired to create images in the path of a fixed light source, we see a flat, two-dimensional creation. Our brain catalogs its shadow as the outline of a rabbit. But we are seeing only part of reality. We know, of course, it's not really a rabbit because we can see the contours and position of the other person's hand. But what if we couldn't see it? Would we believe a rabbit really created the shadow?

The fifth dimension is the hand. We see and taste and touch the world around us, oblivious to the things outside our awareness that shape our experiences. Time is a force, acting upon us in all ways at all times. Something we like to think we have control over--the 4.5 minutes it'll take to stop and pick up a latte on the way to work. The two hours we must devote to our daily word count.

In reality, time progresses. Nothing we do will ever be able to harness it. Control it. Slow it down or speed it up. The best we can hope for is a greater awareness beyond the shadowy image on a wall and the inspiration to best make use of its stability.

"An hour is not merely an hour, it is a vase filled with perfumes, with sounds, with projects, with climates. What we call reality is a relation between those sensations and those memories which simultaneously encircle us...that unique relation the writer must discover in order that he may link two different states of being together forever in a phrase." ~ Marcel Proust