Diary: Does the Universe Talk to Us?

I'll give you one example. Last summer I was walking in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, near the University of Utah, on a cloudy, overcast day. There are many trails there, some high, some low, some in between. Usually there are at least a few other people, hikers or bikers. That particular day it was just me, Cooper,* and Doc.**

We had gone out on a low trail, turned around half a mile or so out, and were coming back on a high trail. I was contemplating, as I often do, whether this is really a personal universe, in the sense that it communicates with us in some quiet, one-to-one manner, that it is unique to our own lives and no one else's. I've seen this happen repeatedly over the course of my life, sometimes more dramatically than others, yet, skeptic that I am, I continue to pose this question to myself.

Being on the high trail, I could see down maybe 200 yards below, but the dogs couldn't, due to the sagebrush, rabbit brush, whatever else was growing there. While I was thinking about this, I turned my head back, looking down, for no reason that I could discern, and there, maybe a hundred yards away was a large, grey, healthy-looking coyote, looking directly at me. I stopped and froze and we maintained eye contact for what seemed like a minute, though I doubt it was that long; and then he turned and trotted into the underbrush, as if he was done answering my question. The dogs didn't notice at all and were some distance ahead of me.

You may say this was a coincidence or that I'm lying, and I would not blame you, but this is just one example of what I'm talking about.

I find that the more you slow down, as the world needs so desperately to do these days, the more you notice these sorts of things.

*You may remember Cooper, the brown dog with his head in my lap in my earlier profile on this site. I read a Jeff Foxworthy redneck joke in the Economist recently, which is why I changed the picture. "You know you're a redneck if your driver's license has a picture of you and your dog." Well, I just don't like revealing myself like that.

**Doc is my son's dog, the son who fell in love with his Costa Rican Spanish instructor (who you may remember from Part 2 of my article, "Why Have Kids?") last summer and married her last Saturday. His brother, friends and I wanted to talk him out of it, but he said he had met the best woman in the world and he wasn't going to let her get away.

P.S. I did call my Senators today, as you should too, but I hope this was a little more pleasant than reading the news.