Figuring Forward in an Uncertain Universe

Article by

Meanwhile, someplace in the world, somebody is making love and another a poem. Elsewhere in the universe, a star manyfold the mass of our third-rate sun is living out its final moments in a wild spin before collapsing into a black hole, its exhale bending spacetime itself into a well of nothingness that can swallow every atom that ever touched us and every datum we ever produced, every poem and statue and symphony we’ve ever known — an entropic spectacle insentient to questions of blame and mercy, devoid of why.

In four billion years, our own star will follow its fate, collapsing into a white dwarf. We exist only by chance, after all. The Voyager will still be sailing into the interstellar shorelessness on the wings of the “heavenly breezes” Kepler had once imagined, carrying Beethoven on a golden disc crafted by a symphonic civilization that long ago made love and war and mathematics on a distant blue dot.

But until that day comes, nothing once created ever fully leaves us. Seeds are planted and come abloom generations, centuries, civilizations later, migrating across coteries and countries and continents. Meanwhile, people live and people die — in peace as war rages on, in poverty and disrepute as latent fame awaits, with much that never meets its more, in shipwrecked love.

I will die.

You will die.

The atoms that huddled for a cosmic blink around the shadow of a self will return to the seas that made us.

What will survive of us are shoreless seeds and stardust.

Total
0
Shares

How Brave You Are

Poem by

How brave you are for slowing down

Mysteries, Yes

Poem by

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood

Shakti: Tiny Desk Concert

Video with

A reunion of the seminal Indian / European jazz fusion band for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert

Nakba

Poem by

My mother is three years younger than Nakba

Hand of War

Poem by

From the series of Palestinian poets

My desperate and sad prayer

Poem by

I pray for Israel, I pray for Palestine

Galoba (The Prayer)

Video with

Trio Mandili is a Georgian vocal group, here they perform a piece entitled "The Prayer"

The Ant, the Grasshopper, and the Antidote to the Cult of More

Article by

A Lovely Vintage Illustrated Poem About the Meaning and Measure of Enough

Support SAND with a Donation

Science and Nonduality is a nonprofit organization. Your donation goes directly towards the development of our vision and the growth of our community.
Thank you for your support!