The Web of Connection in ‘The Overstory’

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

There are passages in fiction that I can only think of as transcendent. The Overstory abounds with them.

One describes the night that finds a sleepless Neelay in the Stanford Arboretum in search of inspiration.

Completely alone, he marvels at the silence. Foreshadowing his eventual role as the great connecter of worlds, human beings, and nature he observes that:

“The moon is a blazing telephone that anyone on Earth might call him on, simply by looking up and seeing what he sees.” (Richard Powers)

That reminds me of the song Shanghai Breezes by John Denver:

“And the moon and the stars are the same ones you see
It’s the same old sun up in the sky…” (John Denver)

Those words make the world feel smaller, like I could reach my arms out and almost touch China, that anywhere is within reach.