Our Hearts Are Infinite

Herbert’s Infinite Hotel demonstrates the concept of adding to infinity.

He presents a fully occupied hotel with infinitely many rooms to accommodate an infinite amount of guests, and then asks the question: what happens if one extra guest shows up? The answer: that guest would be accommodated too.

That’s how I see the heart. You can never have too much love, laughter, happiness, etc. There is always room for someone or something to enter your life and your heart, even if you already feel full, as if there’s no vacancies. And ideally, your heart will already be pretty full by your own accord.

It’s true, that loving someone or something should theoretically fulfill some “hole” in your heart that nothing else can fulfill. But at the same time, in an ideal world, I’d like to think that these holes are holes that if not filled, you’d be okay. I want to believe that humans are capable of feeling whole on their own, because at the end of the day we are responsible for ensuring our own happiness, health, etc.

I’m not pessimistic about relying on things outside of yourself. Rather I am an idealist. I’d like to believe that the best case scenario when someone or something enters your life, is that you’re already a self-sufficient, fully booked hotel on your own. And then everything else is an addition; the things that turn your life from fantastic to incredible, where you feel so happy but at the same time you were already pretty happy on your own. I’m a big proponent of learning to depend on others, but at the same time, you shouldn’t depend on others to turn your life from bad to good.

Look to them to turn your great into greater; to turn your infinity into an infinity + 1, because as Hebert explains, infinity is infinite even if it doesn’t really make sense.