I Am Here Now. I Am Not Part Of The Void.
Lightman closes his essay on the science of nothingness with a sentiment of touching, inescapable humanity:
“What I feel and I know is that I am here now, at this moment in the grand sweep of time. I am not part of the void. I am not a fluctuation in the quantum vacuum. Even though I understand that someday my atoms will be scattered in soil and in air, that I will no longer exist, I am alive now. I am feeling this moment. I can see my hand on my writing desk. I can feel the warmth of the Sun through the window. And looking out, I can see a pine-needled path that goes down to the sea.”
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CURATED FROM
Probable Impossibilities: Physicist Alan Lightman on Beginnings, Endings, and What Makes Life Worth Living
themarginalian.org
23 ideas
·663 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Beginnings and endings, or what we see as a beginning and an ending, like the coming of a New Year and the going of the “Old” one, unnerve us all. Here is an idea to foster and to share: “What exists is precious not because it will one day be lost but because it has overcome the staggering odds of never having existed at all.”
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The idea is part of this collection:
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