here are some expanded notes from last night's entry into my synchronicities list (which was actually around 3 a.m. today -- which is now yesterday as it is now just past midnight).
* a few days ago, i was emailing with a friend about being alone, and i wrote that though i generally like being by myself, "it's not preferable. it doesn't feel wholesome. i feel incomplete.i am my self, but i am also a social being."
* yesterday at cottage books i found and bought The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light, by tom harpur, which promises to strip away the foofaraw from the historical jesus.
* yesterday, i started reading Programming the Universe: a quantum computer scientist takes on the cosmos, by seth lloyd.
* tonight, i had a half-written reply about "meaning" to jim kitson's post "Christ in One Another." i stopped writing because i was tired and my thoughts were foggy. then i closed the notepad without saving. yoiks! two things jim had written really caught my attention: "It is in the setting of human fellowship that we grow in him and toward him and become more like him" and "You can’t depend on any one person to show Jesus to you or for you to know him."
* i read KU's brilliant posts and went to bed, and read programming the universe until my eyes closed. (since then i've also read the kevin's powerful and personal post on prayer.)
* but i couldn't sleep. i was thinking that kevin and kate are moving with certainty into fellowship at church, and kate is diving in deep, while i drift out to sea; kate and kevin have a greater certainty about christ. and why is that? and thinking about the why kept me awake.
* yesterday at cottage books i found and bought The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light, by tom harpur, which promises to strip away the foofaraw from the historical jesus.
* yesterday, i started reading Programming the Universe: a quantum computer scientist takes on the cosmos, by seth lloyd.
* tonight, i had a half-written reply about "meaning" to jim kitson's post "Christ in One Another." i stopped writing because i was tired and my thoughts were foggy. then i closed the notepad without saving. yoiks! two things jim had written really caught my attention: "It is in the setting of human fellowship that we grow in him and toward him and become more like him" and "You can’t depend on any one person to show Jesus to you or for you to know him."
* i read KU's brilliant posts and went to bed, and read programming the universe until my eyes closed. (since then i've also read the kevin's powerful and personal post on prayer.)
* but i couldn't sleep. i was thinking that kevin and kate are moving with certainty into fellowship at church, and kate is diving in deep, while i drift out to sea; kate and kevin have a greater certainty about christ. and why is that? and thinking about the why kept me awake.
* i should add that i have this mental image in my mind of the the-life-and-times-of-our-universe-as-dixie-cup (replacing my earlier one of the-life-and-times-of-our-universe-as-balloon), because my current computer wallpaper at work is an artist's representation of the expansion of the universe over time from the beginning:
this image came from a NASA article: "Ringside Seat to the Universe's First Split Second"
(someone called this a "kiddush cup" but i don't know what that is, i'm too lazy to google it, i can't relate to it, and so it has no meaning to me; but i can relate to a dixie cup.)
(two quotes come to mind: "Me and all these other dice bouncing around in the cup" and "God does not play dice with the universe.".)
so, let's recap:
* i'm alone in this universe
* the universe is big; it has a design, and a structure; it's a big computer that computes information
* i came from the universe, i will return to it, and am part of it, but how do i relate to the universe?
* why can't i relate to jesus?
* i feel something's trying tell me something; i don't feel i've drifted so far out to sea, i feel close to belief in god and jesus. for jesus to have meaning for me, the jesus i can relate to, is the jesus stripped away of all foofaraw, like the anglican altar stripped bare on maundy thursday. god as the design/er of the dixie-cup universe, the computer, and the design is trying to tell me something, there is intention in the design, something is trying to be said. jesus as the interpreter who gives meaning by making relationships possible. relating, direct contact. humane laying on of hands, healing
* so i got up, made myself a mashed-banana-on-rye sandwich, and climbed back into bed with programming the universe.
From page 25 (emphasis mine): "1001001 1101110 0100000 1110100 1101000 1100101 0100000 1100010 1100101 1100111 1101001 1101110 1101110 1101001 1101110 1100111. Interpreted as a message encoded in ASCII, this string means "In the beginning." But taken on its own, with no specification of how it is to be interpreted, it means nothing other than itself. Meaning is defined only relative to a scheme of interpretation, as the following conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty reveals [the author quotes this page in Alice in Wonderland from 'I don't know what you mean' to 'which is to be master — that's all.']"
* so i got up, made myself a mashed-banana-on-rye sandwich, and climbed back into bed with programming the universe.
From page 25 (emphasis mine): "1001001 1101110 0100000 1110100 1101000 1100101 0100000 1100010 1100101 1100111 1101001 1101110 1101110 1101001 1101110 1100111. Interpreted as a message encoded in ASCII, this string means "In the beginning." But taken on its own, with no specification of how it is to be interpreted, it means nothing other than itself. Meaning is defined only relative to a scheme of interpretation, as the following conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty reveals [the author quotes this page in Alice in Wonderland from 'I don't know what you mean' to 'which is to be master — that's all.']"
at this point, i got up and keyed these notes into my list of synchronicities, now much expanded.
to be continued...
3 comments:
while googling the einstein quote (check out the link for some even better quotes!), i was reminded of stephen hawking's response: "Thus it seems Einstein was doubly wrong when he said, God does not play dice. Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen." that's from stephen hawking's lecture Does God Play Dice?, near the bottom of the second page.
Sometimes God throws dice where they can't be seen...
Hawking's writing always feels clear and comprehensible, but I often stop and think "Just a minute, I didn't understand any of that." I can derive the overall meaning (especially 'cause he uses all them pictures) usually, but couldn't explain it. I like how it sounds in my head though.
You could put all the synchronicities in that Brain program and if other people did and they could be connected, maybe we'd finally end up at 42.
When i read your post I felt sort of "wow, redsaucer's smart." and decided to wait till the feeling passed before commenting.
I'd like to have read your lost comment to Jim's blog.
Can I maybe read you The Pagan Christ at some point?
oooooh sleepy.... g'nite
meh, smart. thanks, but it doesn't mean a whole hill of beans, sometimes. 'sides, you're smart, too. general relativity and quantum mechanics are mind-boggling at the least, and often counter-intuitive, and i don't get a majority of the layperson's stuff, let alone the actual technical mathematics.
but it's good brain exercise, and fills me with wonder, and more questions than flapjacks at a scout jamboree breakfast. mmm.... flapjacks :)
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