The Universe in a Glass of Wine
The universe in a glass of wine. What a beautiful statement, what a beautiful concept.
Have you ever had the experience of sitting in deep conversation over a bottle of deep, dark red wine? The hours seem to fly as you — cheeks flushed and pink — discuss the mysteries of the world…. love, loss, spirit, science, philosophy. The big questions of our microscopic and macroscopic universe.
The wine certainly isn’t a requirement of ruminating on these questions (or all of our astrophysicists would be raging alcoholics) but it certainly acts as a lubricant to help wiggle into those deep soul conversations.
It’s that state of deep reflection, shared with another person in reverie and connection, that I felt when I read this quote today by the brilliant theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. He said:
“A poet once said, “The whole universe is in a glass of wine.” We will probably never know in what sense he said that, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look in glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflections in the glass, and our imagination adds the atoms. The glass is a distillation of the earth’s rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe’s age, and the evolution of the stars. What strange array of chemicals are in the wine? How did they come to be? There are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products. There in wine is found the great generalization: all life is fermentation. Nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering the cause of much disease. How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts — physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on — remember that nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for. Let us give one more final pleasure: drink it and forget it all! (source)
I love myself a poetic scientists, as much as I love a Buddhist philosopher that loves hip hop (I’m SURE this exists), because scientists waxing poetic generally lead me to think really deep thoughts.
Here’s a listicle of Nicole’s really deep thoughts.
- Everything and I mean, EVERYTHING is interconnected. Every thought you have, word you utter, purchase you make, mailing list blast you send, tweet, shower, bite of food, bicep curl, smile, sales pitch, every dish that you scrub is interconnected in a fine, gossamer web. Treat even your smallest choices as if they truly matter — because they do.
- If everything is interconnected, then divisions are artificial. On a philosophical level, we can say that you are the same as a plant, which is the same as a bit of mold. But, on a more practical level this means that rather than moan about trying to achieve the ephemeral work/life balance, instead recognize that there really is no true distinction between work, life and play. Dynamic life can’t be put into small, descript boxes of “here is work”, “here is life”, “here are chores”, “here is fun”, “here is time to be sad”, “here is time to be loving.”
- The importance of cultivating effortless ease and “letting-go-ness” in life. And holy smokes this one is hard! When Feynman (you know, the smart guy from above) was asked the question “if you could leave behind just one sentence about the world to generations after, what would it be”. His answer: All things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. (source)
I mean, of course a scientist would answer that question in a science-y way, but how I interpret this answer is cultivating ease through allowing things some breathing room and space. For all of you Law of Attraction fans out there, this is what is meant by the “art of allowing” — giving your dreams, desires, goals a little distance, so they have the opportunity to attract. We can see that even at a fundamental level, as atoms are squeezed together (the grasping! the wanting! I need it! It has to happen!) they repel.
Three very big ideas, roughly scribbled in my notebook to share with you while I reading this morning. I could definitely explore each big idea so much further, but I’ll save that for when we’re sharing a glass of red wine together and musing about how I think I almost saw the Milky Way galaxy shimmering at the bottom of my glass.
