NEWS: 2013-10-29 - Now working on the sections on Thinking and Loving
Heaven in a Wild Flower - Music - BIll Douglas - itunes
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour-- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
Our footprints are on the moon. ... Our little probe Voyager is sailing past the edge of our solar system, on its way to the stars. We can now look into our own cells and see the DNA of our past - and future. Now we are ready, ready to tell a new story of the unfolding universe - one for our own time - of galaxies and stars, children and flowers, tears and laughter - and most of all of our place here during the summertime of our universe.
Remember those tales about the explorer who returns from afar only to find the sought after treasure right at home? We will journey out to galaxies and down into cells and atoms. Then we will find the most amazing thing of all - right in our mirror - because science is not just ideas. Science is a human story and we all like a good tale - especially when it is our own.
In this journey, our appeal will not be to authorities of the past, magic or the supernatural, but to what nature herself has to show us. This is a journey of fading gods and changing worldviews - of mileposts and shores left behind - a journey not for the faint hearted. As Christopher Columbus said:
"You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."
When I go to a concert, I expect to experience great thoughts and emotions. If the performers don't make tears run down my face, I want my money back. Science is an exciting concert too - stunning us with new understandings and wonders far beyond the merely miraculous.
Although this site is about my journey, you have a journey of your own too. As children say when playing doctor: "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Of course they are talking about their private parts - but then our heart is our most private part, isn't it?
Our journey will take us far, out past the Pillars of Hercules and deep into the human heart. We will sail past new sights and sounds, old friends and strangers, deep thoughts and feelings. The view of the world we were taught as children will fade and we will make a new one …
Come, my friends -
Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-- Tennyson
Next>> The Unfolding
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NOTES:
I have provided only short quotes of some of my favorite media pieces here, or used Youtube, Vimeo, etc.
I hope this inspires you to follow the links to obtain the full works at iTunes, Amazon, etc.
All copyrights of quoted works belong to their associated author, performer or publisher.
Quotation of excerpts are under fair use doctrine of copyright law.
