The sea reflects the colours of the sky, letting the shadows of clouds ripple over its surface. The adult reflects their childhood in many of the ways in which they, think act and speak. Our society itself reflects how we have evolved and how we use patterns and systems to create around us what we call ‘civilisation’. The microscopic world, showing us that the atom is largely empty space in which particles revolve, reflecting the macro-world of the Universe itself.
One of the most illuminating and wonderful TV moments I ever experienced was listening the Carl Sagan describe how a two-dimensional being would ‘see’ our three dimensional world. He showed a three dimensional object and described it passing-by our two dimensional being and how they would see sections, like shadows, of the object as it passed them. But how their physical make-up prevented them from ever seeing the whole three dimensional object. Then he said, ‘I cannot show you what a four dimensional object looks like in our three dimensional world, but I can show you its shadow.’
We are awash with things hidden deep within us; that psychology and genetics barely dream about, that reflect things and times we have never known but part of us cannot forget. These things connect us to the history of everything.
And whether their shadows make us feel cold or warm, they have a profound effect upon us every second of every day.