Think of it for a moment: we are the blood of the Earth. This is meant literally as much as it is figuratively. Observe the channels of traffic move to and fro, as the people step and drive through the streets. We are the harbingers of influence, moving from vein to artery as hemoglobin of humanity. We are the conveyors of nutrients as well as the junk. The people of a community are in varying states, from self-destructive and criminal to faithful and upright, in a similar manner as one would find with the cells within one’s body. The microcosm reflects the macrocosm, and vice versa. This is one application of the hermetic aphorism, “as above, so below”, to the outer world you meet every day. Biology, set in motion by laws and forces outside of our innate influence, can demonstrate all of the states and manners in which we observe in the conditions of our own world.

The state of a single man is an analogy of the state of a single cell. One can observe the current trend of thought in healthcare, where the emphasis is on ensuring the health of cells, those most sacred building block from which every other greater organic entity is built. This is in no way different than the routines we develop for ourselves, seeking care for the body, heart and mind. The specializations each and every one of us is assigned to, from janitor to doctor and police to professor, is directly analogous to the variety of roles one witnesses in the world of cells. Take a glimpse of the design of governments and the consequences in the streets of its cities. The degree of poverty and prosperity, its inclination or refutation of freedoms, proliferates and determines what range of specializations will exist in that particular ecosystem. The pauper on the pavement is not necessarily a specialization of a cell that you will expect to see in high numbers in a healthy community.

We are in no way islands to one another, separated by some unseen psychology ocean. The health and sanity of our fellows of the community has direct and immediate consequences, many of which we are unfortunately oblivious. The overall state and condition of the society at large must always be a concern for those who wish to develop themselves on a personal level. Indeed, the state in which that community finds itself, due to the quality of government and economic practices, determines far more of our possibilities, inner as much as outer, than we would like to admit. It is for this reason that the lack of drive to participate, by democratic right and duty, is such a pitiful affair in many western countries. It is a chicken and egg dilemma, where the people lack both faith and interest in the higher order governing their day to day life. In such a way one can relate the health of the cells by the quality of the fluid that bind them together in some form of harmony.

There is no greater task upon oneself than to work to improve the conditions of the outer world, beginning with one’s community. And it is best for this effort to begin with selfish intent to at least the same level and degree as one indulges in altruistic ambition. For then the need and results, the gaps between the crooked edges of how the social system connects and weaves together as one single choir, will be of the most practical necessity. The urgency will be clear and one will sincerely acknowledge one’s duty as a cell amongst a host of others. However much space you think exists inside you that is separate from the tainted or blessed touch of others, this idea of “as above, so below”, and its application to the world of biology as it relates to the world of humanity, will prevail. That is for certain; as the laws of space and time suggest with great verve that reality will still exist tomorrow morning.