The Hidden Reality

My writing teacher says that book titles are up for grabs. “You are allowed, by law, to publish a book titled Gone With The Wind, if you so desire,” he said. I took his word for it and the title to my blog today is grabbed from a book by Brain Greene, a book I intend to borrow soon from the public library. An article in the latest copy of Smithsonian magazine called Mind Over Matter triggered me off.

I can guarantee you I shall not be able to understand more than a small fraction of that book because Professor Greene speaks mathematics and physics, languages I know little of. I took only the math which was required in school. I can add, subtract, multiply and divide. Beyond that, even algebra and geometry are now Greek to me, though I passed them in high school. My son, David, however, was a science major and chose those fields in high school, college and in his career. When he first showed talent along these lines I realized that he must have got it from me. Why? Because I can’t find mine!  Nevertheless, I believe that mathematics is a true science and will lead us someday, yes, is leading us today, to a higher reality. I’ll be reading about that in Brian Greene's book. 

When I get onto these subjects I feel like an ant looking up at a skyscraper and asking “What’s this?” There’s no hope of the ant finding out and it couldn't care less. We must be in something like a parallel universe as far as an ant is concerned. Here, but unfathomable.  

Brain is the big subject these days. You might even call the brain a lens. (I wonder what they’ve learned from Einstein’s brain? I mean the brain he left for scientists to study when he died.) I believe the brain is a tool of the lens of conjecture or material beliefs, through which we see “darkly,” as St. Paul put it. 

This dark lens may give us glimpses of that hidden reality and I'd like to learn more of it, but I'm not anxious to leave this scene as yet. I enjoy its beauties and innocent pleasures, even though I take issue with its darker side. Wars, terror, catastrophes and such I'd like to believe are simply warped views like dirty windows or a hall of mirrors at a county fair. On this plane of existence I don’t believe we'll ever get things totally right but we're here to learn. The sooner we can understand and move on the better. At my age, if I am not quick enough, alert enough, to be ready for the hidden reality, I might just get another turn to look through an imperfect lens. If so, I hope it’s as good a trip as this one, or even better!

I wish I could tell you, my readers, more of the hidden reality I feel I have found, but you see, I need to prove it in order to do as our writing teacher says, “Show, don’t tell!” I can show you this, for sure: I’m asking questions, and according to a professor I once heard, the first sign of a step in progress is to ask, “How come?” 

Then we need to listen because the answering voice is a “still, small” one!