What you said was "the backs of 4 giant elephants," but that's neither here nor there.

I agree to a point regarding the inconsequentialities of life, the Universe and everything. the point of discrepancy arrives with locale. Technically, everything in the Universe is believed to interact with everything else in the Universe, just as everything on the Earth interacts with everything on the Earth (and please note that this is also within that same Universe I just mentioned).

The interaction is there, but is immeasurably weak. Two automobiles may collide in Kansas City, MO, but the effect on you is negligible if you live in Peking, China. The closer you are to the actual collision, however, the more involved you become. You might be close enough to actually hear the skid of the tires and the thump of the impact. You might be half a block away, where you could feel the collision as a sudden, though mild, shock wave. You could be waiting to cross the street where the collision occurs and be sprayed with flying glass. You could be crossing that street and be right at the time and place of impact. The closer you are, the greater the effect.

The same is true with the Earth and the Sun. Earth orbits the Sun due to its linear acceleration, but is slowed and pulled from its path by the Sun's gravitational force, just as the Sun orbits the Milky Way, and just as the Milky Way is believed to orbit the Great Attractor.

Zen Cosmology?
;^)

Dan