{"id":2687,"date":"2023-05-29T11:09:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T15:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/some-thoughts-about-the-ocean-and-the-universe-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-05-29T11:09:02","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T15:09:02","slug":"some-thoughts-about-the-ocean-and-the-universe-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/some-thoughts-about-the-ocean-and-the-universe-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts about the Ocean and the Universe \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In many ancient creation myths, everything was born of a great cosmic ocean with no beginning and no end, lapping matter and spirit into life. In the cosmogony of classical physics, a partial differential equation known as the wave equation describes how water waves ripple the ocean, how seismic waves ripple rock, how gravitational waves ripple the fabric of spacetime. In quantum physics, a probability amplitude known as the wave function describes the behavior and properties of particles at the quantum scale. Virginia Woolf described the relationship between consciousness and creativity as \u201ca wave in the mind.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

Waves lap at the bedrock of being, beyond the scale of atoms, beyond the scale of stars, to wash up something elemental about what this is and what we are. <\/p>\n

This dialogue between the elemental and the existential comes alive in a splendid poem by the astronomer and poet Rebecca Elson<\/a> (January 2, 1960\u2013May 19, 1999), composed as she was dying in the prime of life, included in her superb posthumous collection A Responsibility to Awe<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>), and read here by Amanda Palmer<\/a> to the sound of \u201cOptimist\u201d<\/a> by Zo\u00eb Keating<\/a>: <\/p>\n