[at-l] Semi OT - Shakespeare

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Shane wrote:
>>[Curtis]
>>Yes, one day the sun will go out and that will be the end of
>>Shakespeare too.

Hmm - only if we don't take him with us when we leave.


>Scientists have estimated the age of this universe, and the probable time
>when it will collapse. If you look at the figures, you come to realize that
>we are living at the very beginning of the universe. Long after the 
>greatest
>works of humanity have crumbled into atoms, a sun will rise on another
>planet. Tomorrow will never come there either.

True - and a lot of people figure they'll be happy "tomorrow."  Most of them 
wait a long, long time.


>One day though, at the end of
>time, everything will come to a stunning halt. The universe will have 
>ended.
>Everything we have ever done - or ever will do - will have no meaning then.
>It will be judgment day, and everyone will receive the same sentence:
>Oblivion.

Hmmm - read "The Inflationary Universe" by Alan Guth.  It's out of date, but 
it was the basis for a whole new range of insights into cosmology (not 
cosmetology <G>).  There will be no "collapse" nor an "end" to the universe 
in the way you're thinking.  Nor an end to time.  But there may be an "end" 
to humankind if "we" stop expanding, learning, and building.


>Unlike Shakespeare, I am strangely comforted by, and find no morbidity in,
>this realization. In the end, we will all return to the darkness.

On an individual basis - maybe, but I don't believe it.  As a species, 
maybe.  But I keep in mind what someone else once said -
"The measure of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and 
tragedy.  What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls 
a butterfly."


>But until then, we are the universe. It is very strange to me that many 
>people think of themselves as being IN the universe. You aren't IN the 
>universe, anymore than you are ON the planet. You are made of the same 
>stuff as the stars. Youare part of the universe, and part of the planet. 
>You can go into the wilderness, see an animal, and say that the animal is 
>part of nature, but YOU are part of nature too. You are that part of the 
>universe that observes itself. You have a habitat, and a natural place in 
>the natural order. Humans
>have chosen to live in a cage and call it a house. It is up to you to
>rediscover your natural state. While it is almost impossible to abandon the
>artificial habitat of civilization, we can at least discover our humanity.

Thank you.  Too many of those who profess love of "nature" also profess the 
perfidy of humankind without acknowledging that humans are as much a part of 
the natural world as beavers or mud wasps.  We build - not always wisely or 
well - but "naturally."


>Perhaps we can even start tomorrow...

Why wait?  None of us, not even the youngest among us,  have enough time in 
our lives to complete the process, but that's no excuse for not starting.

Walk softly,
Jim

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