The Great Area Rug

We're still pursuing the theme of man as microcosm and cosmic frontier. These two concepts relate to vertical/hierarchical space and pneumo-developmental time, respectively.  

In other words, in addition to its purely geometric setting, this cosmos we inhabit has upward and forward dimensions. It's why progress is possible, and why some people are better than others. 

Which, as usual, reminds us of a few zingers. Regarding hierarchy,

The noble one is not the one who thinks he has inferiors, but the one who knows he has superiors. 

Respecting our superiors is above all a proof of good taste.

There is something definitively vile about the man who only admits equals, who does not tirelessly seek out his betters.

So, if you're wondering about vertical directionality, nobility and good taste are up, vileness and self-satisfaction down. 

Regarding progress,

Men tend not to inhabit any but the ground floor of their souls.

The soul is the task of man.

The only possible progress is the internal progress of each individual. A process that concludes with the end of each life (Dávila x 6).

If you're wondering where to situate yourself in the dimension progress, that's easy: seek out and ask a better person. 

In this Cosmos -- AKA the Real world -- the human person is 

the bond, the nodal point, that gathers together the whole universe into unity. It thus becomes the symbol and expression of the unity of the whole of creation and so the unity of God, its Creator. 

Only a human being can do this, partaking as it does of both extremes, matter and spirit, and integrating them into unity within itself. Thus the human person becomes truly the center of the universe (Clarke).

Truly truly I say unto you: man is the rug that ties the cosmos together, both naturally (horizontally) and supernaturally (vertically), the latter thanks to the Incarnation. One can acknowledge the former without accepting the latter, at least up to a point. 

But if you keep thinking about it, you'll eventually realize that nature isn't self-explanatory. Rather, nature itself is supernatural; and that

If man is the sole end of man, an inane reciprocity is born from that principle, like the mutual reflection of two empty mirrors (Dávila).

You'll know you're on the right track if the realization of man's centrality results not in pride and grandiosity but in humility and gratitude at the endless frontier.

Thus, today's bottom line is an upward spiral:

the human person becomes the mediator between the whole material world and its Creator, enabling it through him to complete its own return to God in the Great Circle of Being that pours out from God in creation and then strives, drawn by the pull of the Good, to find its way back home to him again (Clarke).