What Are We Looking at?

Lewis’ ladder is firmly planted on our small planet, or is it another apple? That would really take the cake. In terms of scientific fact, it is utterly disproportionate and incorrect. We are taught that science is a matter of provable, repeatable, and demonstrable phenomena. Sir Isaac Newton’s apple falls to the ground and presto; there is endlessly repeatable proof of the invisible force of gravity and applesauce.

On a side note, why is it always an apple?! How come the tree of knowledge is no longer the forbidden fruit? This is quite a legitimate question. If we look at all the forbidden foods in many religions, how come Christians eat them by the ton? Why is eating them not taboo in Christianity? Was Eve, the first woman, in fact also our first scientist? Is this the root of the uneasy relationship between religion and science? Are we meant to reconcile it? Yes, I digress, but digression is undervalued as a gateway to discovering new paths to follow. Still, I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to follow it further or not.

For all we know, the girl took an apple with her as a snack, though with or without sustenance she has reached the end of her escape. She can climb no further, reaching out as she might. And she is only reaching for the moon, not another solar system or even galaxy. She is not greedy in that sense, but merely looking for the next empty place. Those using public transport do this every workday, trying to find an empty seat. Instead, she has built her own infrastructure to get from A to B, the ladder. Admittedly, this leaves the planet short of a few trees, and yes, if they were apple trees with a degree of irony.

How Can the Image Be Interpreted?

The ladder has thirty-eight rungs and a lot comes up on Google in relation to that number. What I found interesting was on the site affinitynumerology.com: “the essence of the number 38 is a composite containing the ideas of:

• coexistence

• relationships

• creative self-expression

• efficiency

• diplomacy

• optimism.”

Since 38 is made up of 3 and 8, the site offers the following equation:

3 + 8 = 11

1 + 1 = 2

“the numerology number 2 represents a composition containing the ideas of:

• relationships

• teamwork

• companionship

• coexistence

• diplomacy.”

Like astrology, numerology is not considered to be a hard science. And yet, astrology, numerology, the I Ching (no, not invented by Apple), tarot cards, palm reading, and other systems to create meaning in the chaos we so often can’t fathom, have held sway over people in ways that are at times similar to religion.

Whether in the stars or in a stack of cards, we keep searching for answers about the future and the past.

Maybe that is why Lewis’ image of the girl contains a degree of ambiguity. She looks like a schoolgirl eager to find the answer to a question. Is she in fact bringing knowledge instead of seeking it? Does she have an answer or a question?

Another great science fiction movie, Contact, proposed that Nazi Germany’s high-frequency broadcast of the 1936 Olympics might have broken through the atmosphere, subsequently sending Hitler’s opening speech through space at the speed of light. Though, with any luck, this original hypothesis by astrophysicist Carl Sagan did hopefully not occur. Was Lewis thinking about this when he conceived of this image and is the girl simply performing the Hitler salute as a stark reminder of how atrociously we may have introduced ourselves to the universe?

Somehow I think not. In her reach, to the point where her skirt is hiking up in a way that might make her vulnerable to unwanted attention, she seems to know that she is quite alone. Like Amelia Earhart, she is out there with the tools and wit that she’s been given and that’s it.

I am reminded of dismissive sayings when someone attempts the seemingly impossible: “Those who reach too high just fall harder” and “S/he is reaching for the stars” as if the absurdity of the attempt needs no further explanation. It is understood to be futile, self-indulgent, stupid, and to demonstrate a host of other deplorable delusions.

Yet, there she stands. Unwavering, determined beyond reason, reaching or greeting, we know not. She uses her left hand in the gesture, is she left-handed? She holds on to the ladder with her right hand, is she right-handed? Is she ambidextrous? Even if we knew, would it help further our understanding?

The words that overlap between the numeral 38 and 2 are:

• coexistence

• relationships

• diplomacy.

Coexistence is a prerequisite for any of us to come into being. Relationships are the ships of relation/relating. Is she exploring disconnect and connectedness? Does our nature require the dualistic experience of both to understand either? Is diplomacy the tool to avoid one and to further the other?

You might wonder why I keep coming back to the incidental, the number of the rungs. In a critique none of us would be able to look up the meaning of 38 and there is plenty to say without any further interpretation of this aspect in the image. Though even in a critique you can count the rungs. You can state that there are 38 of them. You can articulate that 38 is not a prime number but only divisible once, by 2, which equals 19, which is a prime number. In that way the number represents two singularities that together create a plurality. Looking at the numbers visually the number 3 essentially looks like the number 8 split down the middle. A half and a whole. If you are willing to give the visual some latitude the closest resembling letters are a B and an inverted E. BE, “be” (exist) “to be or not to be,” we might as well throw in Shakespeare, everyone else does too.

The point is, we can react on the spot and sometimes the incidental is a great key. The thing we pay least attention to is likely to be the least conscious decision, even for the maker. Whatever conscious or unconscious decision prompted Lewis to create 38 rungs is now part of the image. In (19)38 the Nazis destroyed hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses during Kristallnacht. What led us to Hitler by studying the girl’s gesture in space now leads us back by the ladder.

Conclusion

Possibly, what Lewis suggests to us at the deepest level is that isolation is not the answer but togetherness is, but only if we exclude no one. If we fail to do that, a sense of togetherness defined by what we exclude becomes the opposite, potentially something as hateful as what the Nazis espoused.

So let us hope the girl wakes up from her dream. Let us hope that her dream was beautiful, empowering, and that it spurred her imagination and hopes into a future that is worth dreaming of and working for, together.