3.25.2008

string theorists and sharp copiers

The artist sister is wowed by life. I like that.

I like that I'm easily entertained by simple things, like pink milk and flexi straws.

Artist sister is wowed by the sharp copier at work, it can staple, sort, punch holes, send images as emails, and copy.

We were all wowed by string theory.

The majority of the office went to the forum today, and couldn't stop talking about what they heard.... all this coming from theatre and media arts enthusiasts who freak out about the numbers they have to assign to the pages of a syllabus. Seriously, Swenson asks for help every time. Numbers scare her. So how was this physics/mathematics genious reaching out to the masses and generating this spark plug effect in everyone's mind? Well maybe it wasn't everyone, but it sure sent me thinking.

All I've wanted to do since noon is sit and think and write and read. Instead I had to go to school. It was the ultimate illustration of Mark Twains famous creed, "do not let school get in the way of your education." Education at its best would be students reading, discussing and thinking, motivated purely by the education itself, and not the grade, and as Dr. Math/History pointed out so poignantly yesterday, GPA's are bogus anyway... yet we still conform. Bah, and apparently I'm seeking out a profession that traps me in the 'educational' system forever. To reform? To deal with? Who knows.


ANYWAY.......

The elegant universe.

His words got me thinking. So many thoughts today, buzzing around in my head, some landing long enough for my vision to focus and glean something small, before they'd fly off again. Some thoughts connected and seemed to buzz at a similar frequency as the thoughts previous, but most just sped around in a jumbled array of chaos.

I have in my head an image of a model of quarks, the quantum mechanics model of the universe, where position and motion affect each other inversely, and disarray reigns. It matches the image of my ideas, and the concept of mortals and their seemingly frantic and conflicted existence.

Like the juxtaposition of Einsteins model of the universe, and the quantum theories that rule the microscopic, our own vision and understanding opposes the calm, wide and deep vision of an all knowing all comprehending Father.

If we could pull ourselves up, elevated to a transcendent state, we could 'stretch' the turbulent tumultuous events in our short lives, and see them as small pieces in an infinite puzzle that builds a divine eternity. If we could share the perspective of the Creator at all times, we might understand our existence as Einstein explained planetary movement, like a gentle geometry, complex yet constant, calm, converging to truth.

But I can't. I must settle for these glimpses of light, when the confusion and buzzing settles enough for my vision to grasp divinity.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

mostly i'm wowed by you.