Shared
Interests

You know,

with all the millions of humans in the world,

and all the variety that we know is a Sign of God,

the variety of different human interests

has a scale that is hard to understand or imagine,

yet you have to wonder where all those different interests come from,

what is it that makes up a “me”.

Well, there's genetics,

where parents' body cells get blended together,

and bits of one get mixed up with bits of the other

to form some unusual combinations.

But there's more to people's variety of interests than that.

There's the influence of those parents, for a start,

sharing their own interests

as part of a child's upbringing

in a way that will still bond them when the child has grown.

Then there's the life experience of the one with the interest.

As the human explores the world,

from infancy to adulthood,

the world shapes their lives,

their likes and dislikes,

and their interests.

But different as they may be, humans need each other

to share their interests with,

sharing knowledge in a specialised field,

little of which is of much interest

to the vast majority of the rest of the human race.

But it is the specialization

that defines creation's variety

and gives it names.

Specialization involves close study,

and focusing in on a subject

shows detail that can't be seen from further away,

allowing a subject to be divided

into ever narrower specializations.

This is looking at the mechanics of how the creation works,

and that brings power over it.

It is the power of analysis that its understandings can change the world,

but it carries with it the danger of dissecting a butterfly.

That may provide great knowledge

as to how it functions, lives and breathes,

but in doing so leaves no more living breathing butterfly.

A subject under analysis is broken into a myriad parts,

endlessly searching out greater variety in creation,

but always facing in the direction of difference,

ever more isolation.

Now, to balance that humans have the power of synthesis,

they share their interests, and put things together

to change the world,

and that way they can make and do wondrous things,

if only of a certain kind.

It still takes God

to make, shape and create, a butterfly.

But to do their wondrous things,

humans come together,

they unify,

become one,

blending variety of knowledge with unity of will.

Creation flows in both directions,

and at the centre of it all is humankind,

looking outwards and inwards.

Creation shows both unity and variety in abundance.

The seeds of a dandelion are enough to grow a thousand more,

great shoals of fish spawn each year,

enough to survive being food for much of the planet,

the murmurings of starlings overhead

and quiet insect colonies beneath our feet,

all show nature pouring forth vast quantities of life to fill the world,

individuals merging into an anonymous sameness.

And seen from above, like sheep or ants,

humans would seem to be much the same,

clustering together

in their ever shifting anonymous millions.

Yet each understands themselves to be different,

and that everyone else is equally different from everyone else,

different in the same way as themselves,

as individuals.

But at the same time, they also know that somehow they all work together as one,

integrating their variety of interests.

Shared interests form at the edge of separation and unification with the world,

with much of our interaction with the world

taking place at an unconscious level,

with all the influences of inner thought and peripheral visions,

and communication by body language,

all aligning us with the world

so we don't bump too hard against each other.

We are separate from the world,

yet part of that world in the oneness of being,

the oneness of Tawhid.