A Lot to Think About


"So what do you think about the student protests on campus?" Doc asked, as I helped myself to the soda fountain, feeling a bit nostalgic for a childhood more innocent.

Thank goodness, I always have this place to come back to, a place which always feels so stable and secure, such a welcome break in these wild days of mounting maelstrom and madness.

"I see where the students are coming from, they want to be heard, this younger generation disenchanted with the world given them---the increasing nuclear threat with the Bay of Pigs and the whole Cuban missile crisis, the escalating conflict in Vietnam, increasing pollution and environmental degradation...and all this in the wake of McCarthyism. The American Dream presented to my generation is quickly fading. Seems to me these students are just doing what any good American has always done, they're fighting for freedom and fair treatment, and if that doesn't begin with free speech, I don't know where it does."

"The movement seems to be causing a lot of troubles," Doc said, concerned, "Even violence."

"Yeah, if only these things could be handled in a more civilized fashion," I said. "Or maybe we should go back to the old days of wielding clubs, let the leaders fight it out man to man, or have a wrestling match. Problem today, war is becoming too clean, at least in the sense of killing at the touch of a button. People probably aren't as quick to aggression when, in the eyes of their victim, death is staring right back at them."

"Yeah, this country goes quicker to war these days, least it seems that way," said Doc. "We didn't want to get involved at all in either World War, until we were pushed into a corner."

"Plus it's harder to tell who the enemy is these days," I said,  "or least who's the real threat. Well, in any event, I'm no sociology or political science major."
"That's right genius, you're a Warrior-Philosopher," Doc laughed, "a Major in History come Scientist-Explorer. Speaking of which, how goes quantum mechanics?"

"Well, while I only remotely follow their mathematics---it's another language to me that's for sure---I do understand the basic premise of their conundrum, that is, their so-called "observer problem."

"And that is...?" Doc asked.

"The reductio ad ubsurdum that results when one believes they can separate their self from their environment. In other words, at some point, and that point is reached at the level of the quantum wave, science can no longer operate in a box, or separate their experiment from their self and the rest of the world. The way I see it, at the level of the quantum we enter a whole new dimension of reality, and in this quantum dimension, the tools we are accustomed to using---such as reductionism, Newtonian mechanics and linear mathematics---no longer work. So too, the working premise of subject-object duality no longer applies, for in this quantum realm the two are one, Mind-Body. That's it, end of story. At the next level down in reality, where the time-space dimensions are gone, all that remains is Purusha and Memory or Pure Awareness and Nous...Will and Emotion, the force behind Creation, Prakriti, the Great Mother of All Things, the Eternal Maternal."

"Sounds like you might want to change your major to Theology," Doc laughed.

"Not a chance, you know my hero is Teilhard. As much as I'm drawn to spirit, I'm a man of science."

"Yes, the Noosphere is apparent in your logos," Doc smiled. "And mythos fills your poetry."

"Speaking of heroes, the new Jason and Argonauts movie is out. What'd you think of it?"


"Epic, that's for sure, " gleamed Doc. "And Harryhausen's stop-motion animation has never been better, just incredible!"

"The skeleton scene must have taken forever to film."

"Yeah, and the bronze giant Telos!" Doc exclaimed. "Haven't seen a mythic adventure like that since Ulysses."

"Oh yes, the DeLaurentiis film, with Kirk Douglas no less!"

"The greatest love story of all time, as far as I'm concerned," mused Doc in an unusual expression of romanticism.

"Hard to imagine any better" I said, "Twenty years spent fighting and searching for a happy ending, all the waiting and all the struggling, and then finally, Ulysses and Penelope reuniting!"

"Mmmm...Love triumphs at last." Doc muses, as a long silence  falls between us.

I slurp the last bits of my soda, again feeling this strange nostalgia for the past, wanting to somehow go back, yet knowing, only moving forward finds happy endings.

"Are you sure about that genius?" asked Doc, being his usually astute self.

"Sure about what?"

"Sure about happy endings."

"What do ya mean?"

"I mean what they look like...and how you find them."

"I still don't understand."


"Happy endings, why place any limitations on what they look like and how they are found?"

"Are you suggesting time travel?"

"I'm suggesting, as you do all your learning, you keep your mind open, open to possibilities and potentials that may not be clear to you now, but are there nonetheless."

After a short silence I said, "Hmmm...I think I'll make myself another soda."

"You do that," Doc grinned, "I've got some stuff to do in the back."

Happy endings. Boy, this was a big one to think about. The times in my life where I wish things had turned out differently. And yet, in retrospect, seeing they were meant to be. Hmmmm...all this learning...keeping my mind open... potential and possibility. Maybe things aren't as they appear to be. Which is exactly what Doc told me four years ago, as I was doing this very thing, slurping a soda at the counter. Or was it six years ago? So much has happened between now and then, both in my own life and the world around...getting my degree...the assassination of Kennedy. Time, it's a funny thing...Jesus!

"Genius!" Doc shouted from the back, but my mind was so adrift, I hardly noticed. "Genius!"

"Jesus..."

"Genius!"

"Jesus...Doc I'm trying to think here!" I shouted back at him.

"Yeah I know," Doc smiled. "That's why I wanted to share this with you, I figured your busy mind might enjoy it."

"Have you read this yet?" Doc asked.

Doc threw a paper on the counter. It was titled, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. It was written by Eugene Wigner, one of the greatest physicists of our age. He just won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.

"No, but the title is intriguing...I wonder what he considers unreasonable about the effectiveness of mathematics?"

"Why don't you read it and find out, it might provide some insight into our discussion of Purusha, not to mention mathematics."

"I'll do that. It might even shed some light on happy endings."

"Sounds good to me," smiled Doc.

"Hey, by the way, how are your classes going?"

"Good. As a matter of fact, I'm going to read your story next."

"Cool."

"Now get your mug outta here and go do your yoga, or take a hike...do something to work-off those two sodas you just ate."

Ding.

"Love you Doc."

"Love you too genius."

Ding.