The Lost Realist

When I listen to great, elevating music, I feel that being alive and being able to feel Music in all its subtle, nuanced glory that strikes the deepest chords of our inner reality, justifies being human, even though the consciousness that comes with humanness has such an immense burden.

I am sure this is how God convinced man to exist, by promising him the gift of Music.

Here are the boundaries,
My Mind knows,
But it keeps bleeding,
Beyond the borders,
To flow,
And flower,
In places I don’t know.

Found this beautiful poem recently, here. It expresses most scientists’ world-view, and might I add, mine too, so beautifully and evocatively that I just had to post it here. In today’s world of fanatical religiousness and the upcoming stupidity of fanatical atheism, this poem is a welcome relief.

From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design,
Strike-slip fault and overthrust and syn and anticline…
We gaze upon creation where erosion makes it known,
And count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone.
Odd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks & shells are found;
Where truth has left its sketches on the slate below the ground.
The patient stone can speak, if we but listen when it talks.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks.

There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night,
Seeking out the darkest place, to better see the light.
Long ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will,
Galileo recanted, but the Earth is moving still
High above the mountaintops, where only distance bars,
The truth has left its footprints in the dust between the stars.
We may watch and study or may shudder and deny,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky.

By stem and root and branch we trace, by feather, fang and fur,
How the living things that are descend from things that were.
The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies,
These tiny, humble, wordless things — how shall they tell us lies?
We are kin to beasts; no other answer can we bring.
The truth has left its fingerprints on every living thing.
Remember, should you have to choose between them in the strife,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life.

And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made,
Or study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand.
The profoundest act of worship is to try to understand.
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,
The truth has left its living word for anyone to read.
So turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world.

– Catherine Faber

Everyone faces a choice at one point in their life –
To not think and “be happy,”
Or think about how the world may be made a better place.
People are scared to think, because once you see clearly,
It becomes your inescapable burden to carry your will to fruition –
For everyone’s good and the only way to lasting personal happiness.

May we all be courageously thoughtful and deeply happy.

The lyrics moved me so much I just had to post them here, if nothing, for my own reference in the future =). So, so, so true.

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can’t you understand
Oh my little girl

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Enjoy the silence

We are,
Just a bunch of molecules,
Floating around aimlessly,
Doing something meaningful -
In accidental harmony.

We are,
A group of organs,
Doing their job, day and night,
Doing something together -
In accidental synchrony.

We are,
A group of animals,
Lusting and making lust,
Creating offsprings together -
Accidental fecundity.

We are,
A group of lovers,
Loving and making love,
Nurturing children together -
Accidental humanity.

We are,
A group of explorers,
Learning and helping,
Creating a new world for each other -
Accidental divinity.

We are,
A small speck in the universe,
Floating infinitely into infinity,
Too self-involved to notice -
Accidental inanity.

We are,
A beautiful accident,
In a universe where
Accident is the hand of God.
We are Humanity.

May we be good to ourselves and the universe and realize that the only good that will ever happen is what we do by our own hands and hearts. We are the creators and destroyers. We are the universe incarnate.

Saturates my senses,
This thing,
A feeling or a thought,
It doesn’t matter,
But surely a vexation,
Takes away my peace,
And when it subsides,
I am tired.

The senses are tiresome.
Strong feelings are tiresome.

A sensation,
Hardly there,
Like an intangible fragrance,
Permeating my existence,
But just beyond grasp.

Like that floating speck in my eye,
Always teasing my gaze,
But when I am not looking,
I know it is there.

Never coming forth,
But always present.
Never shining,
But simply radiant.

Love exists,
This way.

At the crossroads I stood,
Millions of paths in front of me,
Millions to choose from,
Millions of experiences awaiting…

I travelled far and wide to reach my goal,
I travelled where each path would take me,
Finally I realized not to choose,
Each road brought me back to where I stood.

Now I stand where I am,
Enjoying each path for what it is,
A new experience, a new way,
A new way to see the world and me.

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

[Albert Einstein]

This quote is a wonderfully succint summary of the core of all of the world’s religions in a few lines, without going into any useless metaphysics. Thats a real scientist’s brain at work alright . If you want an elaboration of this idea, although in a bit more metaphysical terminology, go here.