A Small Fire and the "Big Bang"
A Small Fire and the "Big Bang"
Early last Friday evening, we celebrated the start of the weekend, as we often do in winter, by lighting a small fire in our big stone fireplace. The crackles and glow provided cozy background for our evening meal, then public television’s coverage of the exciting presidential election campaign. The rain was coming down hard and was expected to continue for much of the next 24 hours. No matter, we were unaffected, as long as our basement could stay dry. Heavy winds whipping across the bay behind us were unimportant, as long as no power lines went down.
Ordinarily, the fireplace has darkened well before bed-time. We draw the glass curtains, secure in knowing the fire is harmless now. But this time, for some reason, while my better half was already drifting off, I walked by the fireplace to lock the front door and found the blaze somehow rejuvenated. I woke the poor man up, though gently, with the announcement of a blazing fire. “Couldn’t be,” he mumbled, moving to see for himself. “It’s a blazing fire”, he agreed. “That is going to go on for at least an hour!” and back to bed he went.
I stood watch along with Crispy, our little terrier, who, also apparently unconcerned, was snoring softly on the couch. Too tired to read, I flicked on the TV, channel-surfing to my heart’s content until I found “Charlie Rose” on PBS, with a program devoted to some of issues that enliven contemporary physics, of all things. Amazed at myself for sticking with it for as long as the fire flamed, although there would be no reward of academic credit (I would never have taken the risk of studying physics and/or higher mathematics! Girls didn’t do that in my day!), I listened to Rose interviewing some of modern physics’ stars, including Stephen Hawking.
I’ve since forgotten the others’ names, but it doesn’t matter. What matters was my introduction to the astonishing way their minds work, what excites them, draws them on to search for more and more equations to explain the universe. All this talk of the “Big Bang,” Einstein’s incomplete equation, efforts to explain the Cosmos, gravity, supergravity, a picture of a 10 dimensional universe (I could barely fathom 3 dimensions on building plans), cosmology and particle physics, the search for a theory of quantum gravity, the black holes, string theory!
Now in the light of day, these are all just mystifying words, but in the glow of the fire, I knew what they all meant — and experienced a vertigo that made my little life concerns (the grandchildren’s flu, water in the basement, the phone company's broken promises to fix our fax line, what to make for dinner) seem like utterly absurd minutiae.
Yes, in the scope of things, I and mine are much smaller than an atom. To ease the dizziness at the thought of my and my family’s insignificance, I retreated to my own comfort zone — a fascination with individual differences, particularly among the gifted and talented. More about that will follow soon, now that my feet are back on the ground and the insistent fire is out.
March 11, 2008
