U: UNIVERSE

As difficult as it is to comprehend shape in the subatomic world, it might be just as difficult at the very large scale. The shape of the universe is still being debated. While most scientists believe it to be flat (this was declared in 2013 with 0.4% margin of error), there are “anisotropies” (directionally-dependent differences) in space evidenced by a microwave probe. These are still sparking discussions about shape, and it seems that relativity conclusion just keeps factoring in: gravity bends space, therefore affecting shape. But when this happens in the 4th dimension where our mental models tend to break down, we are left dependent on complicated math and the drawings that physicists draw from them, hence the complexity.

String theory has projected beyond our universe, asserting that we may be living in a “bubble” of pinched-off spacetime and that there may be multiple “bubbles” where spacetime has been focused into its a universe like ours. Since our bubble contains billions of galaxies and the portion we can observe from earth is about 93 billion light years across, the “bubble” concept might be misleading. We tend to picture bubbles as happy little things floating around in champagne, while this bubble is a swirling dynamo of matter and energy beyond our brain’s comprehension. String theorists are quick to point out that if their speculations would in fact convert the universe to a “multi-verse” in our understanding (while science fiction writers jump for joy at the thought).

No matter its shape, the universe has to keep us fascinated forever with its sheer scale. Remember that it does not only include the galaxies and all the space in between them, but all matter and energy, thereby including every quantum entanglement, subatomic energy/mass configuration, right down to leptons and quarks and all their strange behaviors. Moving up a level, the universe contains countless (literally: impossible to be counted) molecular combinations and re-combinations—the sum total of which we call “chemistry”, adding the prefix “bio-“ if it happens in an organic situation. There are simple combinations of oxygen into the life-sustaining doublet that we breathe, all the way to the amazing zipping and unzipping of the massive DNA macromolecule that has carried the genetic code with accuracy straight through the ages! Those macromolecules and hundreds of cellular cycles, large and small, flow energy through organisms via the systematized and specialized machineries that are tailor-made for efficient bio-function. Through their bodies, living beings, plus or minus a consciousness of it, do things as diverse as locomotion, energy attainment, reproduction, digestion and defense against foreign attack! We are like amazing little walking Manhattan islands, miracles of unlikely efficiency, replete with mind-boggling infrastructure!

We could keep moving up the scale until we returned to the macro level, but the scale itself is the idea here. And I have said it before: I believe the universe is a fractal. It is rough and repeating not smooth and continuous! It has dimension and contour on infinite levels. If we don’t see the “UNI-“ as we traverse the levels (the same fractal or fingerprint repeated throughout), it isn’t because it is absent, but rather because we have defects remaining in our natural sight. We are in a strange position as we chase and analyze the unfathomable and the uncontainable—a worthy pursuit, but one which curves spacetime itself in a way that fries our minds and forces us often into limited conclusions. The real search itself is not even what we think it is: We don’t even really need an end or an explanation—what matters is the process. Searching, in the cosmic scheme, is not so much about changing our knowledge base, but rather refining our perception! Just as every good graduate student knows, real education does not leave you confident you know it all. It actually robs you of that naïve confidence, leaving you humbled, finally having grasped how very much there is you don’t know. Real education isn’t complete until the learner has committed to lifelong learning!

When we summon the literal meaning from its Latin roots, the word “universe” means, “turned into one.” I love to take it a step further by noticing that the word “verse,” which refers to a part of a song, psalm or poem, has the same Latin origin, vertere “to turn”. All of this shouts to my rejoicing heart the following: The universe sings ONE song in billions of spectacularly multi-colored and multi-faceted arrangements! I am comforted and settled in the knowledge that, no matter what flies out of the latest science news, the universe will always ultimately be declaring unity, not diversity. There is not really a “ton” of knowledge to master—we need not struggle with data overload. There is really just deeper and deeper understanding of broad truths to be gained. (Even Einstein didn’t believe in memorizing what could be looked up in books!) Certainly the specifics get complicated, but most of us don’t need to know the specifics. What most of us are chasing is a better understanding of how to marvel at, wonder over, and cooperate with the gloriously unfathomable guiding principles! When we see fractal truths resurface at multiple layers of investigation—chiefly truths like: God is good; He is a Father; His heart is generous—we increase our amazement and our participation! For me, even a multi-verse—if it could ever be proved—would still be a UNI-verse! My Father has “got this” and searching will only reveal Him and His inexpressible, vaster-than-vast wells of GENIUS!

On my first day of undergraduate Microbiology, Dr. Carrie Ireland of the O.R.U. Medical School (which obviously still existed at that time) began her lecture by declaring, “Bacteria are ubiquitous.” I know that that is a very simple statement and most people wouldn’t have had their world shaken by it, but I never forgot the moment. First of all, I’m not sure I had really realized that bacteria were EVERYWHERE! (It was the first day of college Micro, I remind you!) Secondly, my worlds collided somehow when a mighty imagery-rich descriptor that would usually have been used in the literature classroom was employed as the object of a “be-verb” describing an entire kingdom of biological life! I have always marveled that I am as passionate for the arts as I am for science, but too rare are the moments those membranes meet outside of my heart and head! I remember vividly the moment I fell in love with the word “ubiquitous” because it had been applied to the single-celled wonders that would be much of my subsequent course of study!

But the biggest reason I think I loved Dr. Ireland’s opening statement for the semester was that it resonated deeply with something I had come to know about truth itself. Without a formal course in philosophy, I had become an alethiologist, fascinated with not just the content of truth, but equally the NATURE of truth! And one of the hallmarks of truth, I had observed, is that it appears EVERYWHERE! Truth is not only universal, but also ubiquitous—and it is ubiquitous BECAUSE it is universal! It crops up in the smallest and most unexpected of places as well as in the great beyond. Once our reticular activating system is captured by the large concept—and I mean CAPTURED, not coerced, for no forced wills will achieve the necessary heart-vision—then our eyes get directed to the ubiquitous demonstrations of truth in the universe! Again and again, the veil is pulled back for us and we, like Moses who saw the burning bush, find ourselves declaring, “I will turn aside and see this thing…”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes.” Wonders are ubiquitous. It is a UNI-verse, unrolling itself to reveal God for those willing to take off their shoes. Turn aside and see. Bend your ear and hear the song, sounding out over and over with entertainment value for BOTH hemispheres of your brain! And, ultimately, refuse to be the ones described in the next line of Ms. Browning’s poem—the ones who won’t acknowledge the holiness of our everyday ground. Immediately following the call, she wrote, “The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, and daub their natural faces unaware.” Perhaps that is the scariest thing in the universe: the fact that it is possible to miss its ubiquitous wonders and its ever-present Cause and Reason, which would be paradise lost indeed. (But no need.)