We’ve been doing a good deal of reading just lately. Natalie is in the midst of a mystery series, affording me the opportunity to filch her latest volume and make a show of inspecting the final three pages. “The butler did it,” I reveal.The response is a withering look from both Natalie and whichever cat is occupying her lap. Nobody is amused except the perpetrator, convinced that he is a legendary humorist.
I, the great scholar, have been reading science books. Non-rigorous science books, the kind that don’t have a dozen problems at the end of each chapter. I’ve worked my way through many a problem set already and my character is as robust as it’s ever going to get.
My favorite out of this last bunch is “Cosmos,’ by Carl Sagan. He is the rare scientist who can write something you’d want to read. He knows his audience, which is composed of busy people who aren’t all that concerned with whatever might be going on within a nebula. But he makes it interesting, because we, personally, are constructed of gas clouds—some time ago they condensed to form the Earth, and everything else.
Occasionally I like to stretch my intellect by considering the size of two spaces. One is the universe, which is all the stars and planets and gas clouds and Waffle Houses. These occupy a lot of space, but not all of it. Then I think about the remaining real estate, which is definitely out there and Does Not End. That is the part that makes my intellect ooze out past the gaskets.
Someone was discussing ‘parallel universes’ the other day, and there is no reason to think that we live in the only one. They could put it in the empty lot across the street, sufficiently far away so that when the Klingons finally get around to destroying our universe, neither the universe next door nor the others down the street will be bothered. They will never see us, and we will never see them.
It’s generally not a good idea to think about this while driving, because your mind tends to bounce off infinite things. At least mine does. On the other hand, we seem to have plenty of extra room in the yard.
Mark Kinsler, kinsler33@gmail.com, lives with Natalie and a pair of judgmental housecats in Lancaster. August 17 is her birthday.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Pondering the vast universe is a wild experience
Reporting by Mark Kinsler, Special to the Eagle-Gazette / Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mark Kinsler, Special to the Eagle-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
