Sunday, June 21, 2015

THE DANCE OF ALL THAT IS (21 June 2015)

[A Litany for Meditation]

“I don’t know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” (203)
- Richard Feynman
  The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1999)

The poet I am delights in the motions of molecules, the beautiful behavior of atoms, the modulation of life on every level_ the oscillations of primary particles; I am fascinated with the movement of all-that-is_ in being in becoming!
                                                   
Change in every dimension of Earth & Cosmos; in myself, in distant stars, in the very geological foundations of continents_ drives me to my knees in wonder!
         
REALITY IS A DANCE,
_the Dance of All That Is! 
Everything is changing_
PANTA REI!      

All matter; from the microorganisms beneath my feet to the cosmic dance of stars and galaxies above our heads_ reflected in the stellar matter of which I am composed_ and the genetic dance within each of us; within every living thing—is continually changing; swirling you_ and me_ toward ever new futures; new possibilities.

Delight in change, for change is constant.  Germination_ Fertilization_ Growth_ Fermentation_Maturation.  Aging and Diminishing.  Death and Decomposition; returning to the Earth.  We are continually being changed and reconstructed through our genetics, out biology and by our environments!

I revel in the Ballet of Evolution, which dances within the ever-widening Tango of Cosmological Expansion!  The story of life – stretching back over 3.5 billion years – is the Epic Tale of our Existence; a powerful source of inspiration for meaning and revelation in the ongoing play that is daily life!  Life is a dance of genetic forces interacting with the dance of our planet’s environments.

REALITY IS A DANCE,
_the Dance of All That Is! 
Everything is changing_
PANTA REI!

To meditate on all of this motion is to become enthralled with the Dance of the World itself.  Phase changes and chemical reactions – these permeate the environment in which we exist, live and dream.  I am not merely ‘alive’ (in some static, idealized way).  To be alive is to be in a ‘state’ that is akin to a dance!

I AM A DANCE, DANCING.

All of the molecules in my body are in motion—in flesh, in bone and fluids and at the cellular level.  There is electrical energy being generated by my body, by its cells, and by the circulation of blood.  At the macro level I can see motion with my own eyes; sense it with my other senses.  And I know that I am in motion; even at rest—for I am on a planet swirling around a star_ in a solar system swirling around a galactic hub_ in a galactic community moving with the expansion of the cosmos itself.

I AM A DANCE
Within a DANCE,
Within another DANCE_
And another—
And on and on and on!

This dance that I am can be described in empirical terms, quantitatively, as well as in existential terms, poetically and philosophically.  As such, it is in this metaphor of a dance that the poetry of our truest selves can be rooted.

REALITY IS A DANCE,
_the Dance of All That Is! 
Everything is changing_
PANTA REI!      

Chemical reactions, entropy and the interplay of thermodynamics & metastable states – all this fascinates me; for it describes us! We are a sum of physical matter in motion; at both the micro and macro levels.

The mystery of what we are is elucidated by chemistry, physics and biology, ecology, evolution and evolutionary psychology.  There is nothing else; no meta-physical or supernatural x that science has missed (that we know of—not that we know anything about.)

Science reveals earthen runes so rich and fascinating that we need never again be seduced by supposed ‘supernatural’ revelations.

So be it.

PANTA REI!