{"id":9535,"date":"2024-12-05T13:09:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T17:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/the-cosmogony-of-you-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T13:09:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T17:09:23","slug":"the-cosmogony-of-you-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/the-cosmogony-of-you-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cosmogony of You \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

We live in a state of perpetual dissociation from the almost unbearable wonder of being alive. Wonder is always an edge state<\/a>, its edge so sharp it threatens to rupture the mundane and sever us from what we mistake for reality \u2014 the TV, the townhouse, the trauma narrative. If we fell asleep each night remembering \u201cthe singularity we once were\u201d<\/a> and awoke each morning with the bright awareness that every atom in our bodies can be traced to one of the first stars<\/a> \u2014 a particular star in the infant universe that made this particular body to sinew this particular soul across billions and billions of blind steps each one of which could have gone otherwise \u2014 we would be too wonder-struck by the miraculousness of it all to deal with the mundane. But the dishes have to be washed and the emails have to be written, so we avert our eyes from the majesty and mystery of a universe that made them in order to look at itself, from the majesty and mystery of what we are. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Card from An Almanac of Birds: 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days<\/em><\/a>, also available as a stand-alone print<\/a> and as stationery cards<\/a>, benefitting the Audubon Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Azita Ardakani<\/a> offers a lyrical antidote to this self-expatriation from our cosmic inheritance in this breathtaking piece she has kindly let me publish on The Marginalian<\/em> \u2014 part poem and part lullaby, part compact history of science and part creation myth, radiating the revelatory simplicity of a children\u2019s book and the causal complexity of a cosmogony.<\/p>\n

Azita writes:<\/p>\n

\n

Once upon a time,<\/p>\n

In a place far far away,<\/p>\n

The darkness drifted.<\/p>\n

The darkness knew no time.<\/p>\n

Reaching for infinity, only knowing beyond. <\/p>\n

One day in the web of inky forever, it asked itself, can I see you?<\/p>\n

It waited, and waited, and then, answered, a star.<\/p>\n

And then another, and another, and, another.<\/p>\n

Another was where it began, <\/p>\n

and as the star beings asked to be born to meet the darkness from which they came, one particular planet created water so it too could reflect the stars back to themselves.<\/p>\n

The stars seeing their reflection were filled with joy and delight.<\/p>\n

Curiosity was born in their light millions of years away.<\/p>\n

One by one they made their way down, to touch the ocean, to see themselves.<\/p>\n

The soil darkness watched with awe as the stars arrived, <\/p>\n

A heart\u2019s desire asked: Can I see you closer? <\/p>\n

The water stars stretched onto the soil, and mixed into the clay, and became, <\/p>\n

everything.<\/p>\n

Yes you too, coyote who hears this, wise owl, mouse and rabbit, you too sleeping fawn, you too tree and root and seed, you too nested flight, and you too, sitting two legged.<\/p>\n

Mixed from clay and star, flesh and life, a hollow canal opened so breath too could reach back to the darkness. <\/p>\n

Missing the beginning, it exhaled a bridge, home.<\/p>\n

The star water became everything we know, and you? The story of us? <\/p>\n

Well, to experience the closest thing to the very beginning of star meeting water, we learned to create a small ocean inside of us, where it could all be felt, all over again.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, in a place far far away, the darkness drifted, and you drifted inside it.<\/p>\n

You were the wish you once wished for.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>
Art by Derek Dominic D\u2019souza from Song of Two Worlds<\/em><\/a> by physicist Alan Lightman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Complement with Pattiann Rogers\u2019s stunning poem<\/a> about how stardust became sapiens and the wondrous science of how stars begot souls<\/a>, then revisit N.J. Berrill\u2019s forgotten 1958 masterpiece You and the Universe<\/em><\/a> and Hannah Emerson\u2019s poem \u201cCenter of the Universe\u201d<\/a> \u2014 perhaps the best instruction I know on how to be alive.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Profit<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We live in a state of perpetual dissociation from the almost unbearable wonder of being alive. Wonder is always an edge state, its edge so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}