The Apple Is the Tree

"We are the universe watching itself." My dad said I'd been taking too many mushrooms. His rebuttal was simple: we are a part of the universe, not the universe. And that disagreement opened the real question. What counts as the whole? Think about an apple tree. The apple growing on it is the tree, like the bark and leaves are the tree. If you point at the branch, that's a branch. If you point at the tree, that's a tree. If you point at the trunk, that's the trunk. If you point at the tree, that's a tree. If you point at the bark, that's the bark. If you point at the tree, that's a tree. If you point at the leaves, that's the leaves. If you point at the tree, that's a tree. If you point at the apple, that's the apple. If you point at the tree, that's a tree. If you point at the forest, that's the forest. Now point at yourself. If you point at your mind, it's your mind. If you point at your brain, it's your brain. If you point at your body, it's your body. If you point at the universe, it's the universe. It boils down to perspective, and how specifically you want to identify the whole. So both can be right. Neither my dad nor I were wrong. We were just pointing at different levels of the same tree.