When we argue about spending money on rebuilding Notre Dame, we unfortunately create a binary circumstance that is out of step with how things are.
As far as we understand it, we live on a sphere. It has no sides. It is not divided. It is perhaps a microcosm of the Universe in which it lives. To adopt opposing sides, or even distinct and disconnected sides, is to establish an unnatural division that does not sit well upon the sphere, or within the naturally interconnected Universe.
Binary thinking inevitably causes conflict. It assumes a separation that cannot be sustained in a harmonious Universe. It is the cause of poverty and climate change because these things cannot exist when we recognise our shared humanity and our place in nature.
Notre Dame was built with an understanding of its place in the Universe. The architects, masons, carpenters, artisans and artists who made it used principles that existed long before the silly divisive politics of our modern power-based religions. Structures like these, with timeless geometry to sustain them, are beacons to remind us that we are part of a great, indivisible system that unites us with itself and each other.
If we see investment in restoring Notre Dame as an unpalatable alternative to investment in fighting climate change and poverty, then we assume a division that is not there. We do harm, because we create another stream of the binary consciousness that brought about the very things we want to overcome.
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that this great evocation of the harmony of the Universe should burst into flames just as protests about climate change gain energy and momentum. What greater symbol could there be of the risks that we face than an icon of the pre-industrial age set ablaze? We witnessed our indelible connection with time and space and nature placed in jeopardy. The conflagration was every bit as potent a warning as the superglued hand of the light railway protester. Both told us that we are dicing with our place in the Universe.
Let us not squabble over trashy purses. Instead, let us celebrate the indomitability of a structure built in harmony with nature to symbolise both the humility and the glory of humanity’s place within it. Notre Dame and buildings like it are conduits for the energies that bind the Universe together. We abandon them, and bicker over them, at our peril.