History is a look back, a reflection of what has already happened, that can rarely be interpreted objectively. The hope is to achieve a coherent, articulate understanding that makes sense. A balanced approach putting together images and events experienced into an impression, also a basis for making reasonable choices that effect the way the future will play out, recognizing that many different patterns also make sense.

Wherever the passage of time leads, its vastness is filled with infinite potential, precluding knowing precisely how events  converge to produce a particular vision. However  it may be possible to sense trends, identify habits or tendencies whether personal or cultural that can be helpful in speculating the likely path that will occur when everything necessary to happen, to make a future possible, happens.  Perhaps as long as dispassionate objectivity is maintained. Then, variations in trends that imply other milestones along a fork in the road appears out of nowhere.

Inspiration often comes out of left field, eluded by repetitive notions of solitary thinking,  blinded by the denial of reflexive habit. A flow of thoughts, only  transcended by a confident leap of faith beyond consecutive logic that elevates the stage captured in imagery to a different level.

Introspective thought, often liberating, allows individual insight  of external reality, also revealing the willingness to acknowledge the difference between what is seen and how it can be exaggerated by personal perspective, one’s relationship with observable events and a basis for honesty or self-delusion.

It can also be a trap, devoid of new insight if the same elements are the sole basis, regurgitated without new combinations as circular thinking returns to the same spot relying on tested formula.

Spiral thought, circular in nature, leads to another level where the goal is achieving productive change is  primarily   a function of absorbing different external elements into the process, allowing new solutions, usually made possible by communication. Always recognizing that the change in thinking produced by instilling different factors into the equation doesn’t determine illumination, but only increases its potential.

What happens after death is perhaps akin to speculating about black holes (or the current stock market), something now thought to be at the center of every galaxy. What they may  contain is at present, unknowable, and a reminder that time, although infinite, is also finite, the reflection of mortality.

The reason it’s called a black hole is because no one knows how to articulate what the experience of being in one is like, since anyone or anything that goes through it never returns.

The concept of a singularity at its center suggests the symbolism of the microscopic macrocosm, a state where all the laws of time, space and gravity, don’t apply, at least as we  define them from this side.  A dilemma for science that would have to create new laws of physics to elucidate the inconceivable. Perhaps there is a connection here between the way science explains things and religion, identifying the singularity as “the divine spark” which sounds more like revelation influenced by biblical text, or visa versa.

Science Fiction is a way to speculate “scientifically” without the presence of enough supportable facts except to assert assumptions that what isn’t known can be manifested as anything since nothing can be definitively excluded from being imagined, usually using advanced technology that hasn’t been developed yet to embellish the possibilities. When invented, fiction then becomes fact.

Of course, all this is predicated on the assumption that “it” requires an explanation that language in the form of symbols is adequate enough to convey that whatever happens on the other side of the black hole is not nothing.

There are very few subjects that evoke the same kind of emotional reactions as the final outcome. Fear of the unknown, of the potential pain and suffering lurking in the background increases as cycles pass knowing that finiteness is inevitable especially when a close shave with death forces the subject to become a source of profound thought and inspiration.

The question always returns to what is left when the physical is dissolved. Philosophy raises questions, structures thought, but it is still difficult to relate to a non-physical existence, an irreconcilable perception from this side of life evoking the image of a black hole from where nothing returns unchanged, let alone with memory. The hope that something does occur, if firm, trusts that some kind of order or infinite potential exists but still not allowing it to be easily envisioned from this perspective.

There are so many theological explanations that it is difficult to isolate and accept just one. They are often intertwined with culture, language and history while portraying some kind of earthly reflection of what occurs, instilled as part of early development until the time that revelation transforms belief into knowledge. Commonalities of defined divinity offer clues on at least how the accumulation of life transforms; it nevertheless leaves a conscious residue of uncertainty. This turns out to be a very difficult subject with many answers dependent on the kinds of insights that are perceived on the path that leads beyond the event horizon.

How uncertainty in life is faced will help in dealing with anything with confident instinctive spirituality. The choice is whether the view of the void is feared more than the alternative of lingering with illness in an existence that has lost meaning to the one living it. That decision should not be left to others who themselves fear surrendering to the other side of life.

Trying to explain a theory of science to a high school class at 7:30 AM is like walking blindfolded through a dense forest at night, especially when it comes to illustrating The Theory of Everything which attempts to connect all the fundamental interactions of nature using a single model. How those elemental correlations cohesively relate, remains the focus of much debate.  Often suggested by “String Theorists“, it’s the ever emerging view of a different form of cosmic construction than the standard model of particle physics, using eleven dimensions.

Mention holograms, associated with its principles, also part of the Star Trek Universe, and watch an ear or two perk up, pointed or not, perhaps even comparing the universe to a bowl of Spaghetti with or without marinara sauce, also suggesting that legendary actress Sophia Loren had an Epiphany when she was quoted as saying, “Everything you see I owe to Spaghetti.”

Another analogy is to compare the cosmic string concept to dental floss, minted green or white, with or without wax. When finished flossing, rolling it up in the palm of your hand into a ball and thinking, “Could this be a scientific model that defines the structure of the Universe?”.

“Nah”, as the used ball of floss, discarded, travels clockwise, a scientific observation in the form of a spiral as it flushes down the septic tank.

“This Little Pond of Goo,” is the overly simplistic description of the mix of amino acids, the building blocks that combine to form the origin of all earthly life, eloquently coined by Q in “All Good Things“, the series finale of Star Trek - The Next Generation. An oozing mix of gook dripping from Q’s hand as he conveys to a perplexed Captain Picard that it was his actions that would lead to the impending destruction of all life.

Another analogy can apply to this descriptive portraiture, a stretch comprising the delusion of a fictional Imp or perhaps the ideas of a writer on  a satirical romp through reality’s imagination not constructed from a science fiction format. All that is needed is a clear observation to see folly reminiscent of The Little Pond of Goo in real life. A political quagmire of misinformation, ideological failure and greedy self interest for nearly eight years, waiting for history to judge the direction the leader and his crew dictated, an execution of unscrupulous ethics and unsuccessful philosophy. A predicament, moving towards the precipice, unable to stop its path toward the cliff, the only control of which is the speed of approach as a wingless bird attempts flight.

A mess of events created by the Captain in a reflection of his demise. His impending doom approaching as hope broadens with simultaneous anticipation of further potential transformation  in the time left before change, resulting in the quiet  patience within the Pond Of Goo, hoping the precipitation of new possibilities would define a better direction for a more promising future as his destructive impact begins to dissipate.

Although not well versed in the Bible except the comic book and cinematic versions, to me, its words have always seemed less important than the imagery they conveyed. Parables of morality and its counter balance, immorality.

Many stories begin with an ordinary person who faces unanticipated challenges that test faith and self-confidence to inspire action or foster procrastination, either elevating them to another level or down into a fiery abyss of ignorant redundancy, perhaps evil. An example of the struggle between our dual nature.

Courage is more about acting in the presence of fear or the unknown without being paralyzed, rather than moving with certainty. Add hope and we have the basis of myth.

Tales, all of which describing a string of tests of human nature and personal morality ingrained within fundamental values, evolved individually and culturally. A Shakespeare play, ornately written with the tribulations of characters facing desperate odds or nature’s folly, also plagued with personal flaws, struggling, the hand of destiny divinely inspired to an unknown fate while providing a co-measured sense of what all people can identify with and relate in their own lives.

The year began with a huge task at hand: all I needed was a subject to write about for my doctoral dissertation. Considering several, I dismissed them as too trivial and yet that’s what also made them interesting.

Working with my adviser on appropriate topics, I had always been fascinated by the color green and how it has been portrayed in culture. Green, synonymous with Ireland, St. Patrick, the great and wonderful Oz, and of course The Guardians Of The Universe, bearers of the ring charged with the light of the Green Lantern. Every twenty four hours, the sacred oath was taken to empower the ring with green energy: “In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, No Evil Shall Escape My Sight! Let Those Who Worship Evils Might, Beware My Power, Green Lanterns Light”. A strong connotation for a color that is also integral to chlorophyll, the substance of all plant life and a logical choice as the template color for my Blog, Eclectic Commons.

It was exposure to gamma radiation that turned Bruce Banner into the incredible hulk, also green, probably based on the assumption that gamma radiation turns things a shade of growani (old English for green), a result of its cellular metamorphosis. A logical scientific explanation considering that the Hulk was originally gray, but Verde serves well, the imagery of a primitive rage as the Hulk searches for self control and redemption, a significant metaphor.

The only thing that made Clark Kent mortal was exposure to the rays of green kryptonite, remnants of a lost world destroyed by a thermonuclear chain reaction and perhaps by the weight of its own karma. Borne to earth in a rocket ship sent by his father Jor-el to a planet with a yellow sun where he would have powers greater than mortal man. Here, the dangerous side of Green is explored as the audience of Smallville watches Clark’s life threatened by the symbol of ultimate destruction and mutation.

So many things are of emerald color. Imagine going into a store with blue money; a sure way to draw the attention of the FBI. Expressions such as “Green with Envy”, or “Green behind the ears” are associated with emotional attributes and experiences often when used in conversation. The list of references is long, a worthy topic for a doctoral dissertation: Interesting, diverse, and imaginative steeped in culture, but I had made up my mind, it would be written on the most fascinating of obscure topics I could imagine: The Japanese Labor Movement during World War II.

At first glance, a dot is small, one dimensional, and round. Nothing more is suggested with the naked eye. Using a microscope reveals a totally different world, every bit as real to whatever or whoever inhabits its space.

Telescopes, when focused on far away objects, magnify what also at first appears as a dot, though larger, reinforcing the notion that whatever it contains is potentially limitless. The reason why it is seen as a dot is because we are too far away to perceive anything more specific with regards to its dimensions.

Perspective, so essential to form, design, structure and art, also becomes the building block of philosophy. Its fundamental notion is: In order to think of something, there has to be someone there to think it in the first place. On the other hand, perhaps a thought created me, to think of it, looking through a telescope and microscope at the same time.

Scholars of antiquity were often students of Alchemy, a controversial science steeped in Mysticism, ridiculed as an occult illusion with the grandiose notion of transmuting base metals into gold. Associated more with Astrology, Tarot Cards and divination, its credibility has suffered in modern times.

According to Wikipedia, many alchemists had profound impact on the scientific advancements of their time including ore testing and refining, metalworking, production of gunpowder, ink, dyes, paints, and cosmetics, to name a few. Certainly more kin to science than crystal ball gazing.

Gold is valuable because it’s a trace element, difficult to encounter, and soft enough to allow its artistic use in jewelry. It also has a nice shiny color. If a solution were found to transform anything into this economic prize, its commonality would detract from its perceived value.

Perhaps a natural evolution of viewing alchemy is also suggested in the intangible metaphysical notions of spiritual qualities expressed in metaphors throughout literature and poetry: the conscious ability to transform primal thoughts and feelings steeped with instinct and accumulated experience into the quest for discovery and perfection made possible by curiosity, the “Philosophers’ Stone“.

Regardless of what philosophy one subscribes to, we are compelled at some point to consider our impressions of the laws that govern the universe. Whether privately contemplated or shared is less important than the fact that they exist diversely, individually and collectively, via philosophy, religion and science, which could not exist if there was no cosmic order: an impossibility that would preclude the development of any disciplined methodology to anything.

Perhaps an assumption, a sophist point of view in its classical sense rather than its modern interpretation, it is nevertheless hard to conclude that there is nothing out there worth knowing, another reality that could enhance knowledge if only by making life more diverse and interesting.

Although philosophers argue their point of view as correct, each way is right, for them. Perhaps knowledge will be comprehended when and if it is ready to be understood. But wait, is it possible that chaos exists within discipline? Or disorder, side by side with harmony? A dual reality? Yet another law to ponder, which comprises the Lore of the Universe.