Be Mine

Happy St.Valentine's Day today. With a quick search on Catholic.org and wikipedia I can safely say that little is known about who (or how many) Saint Valentine is or what he did. He's supposed to be the patron saint of young people, love and happy marriage. So with that, bless your other today, or everyday really, and though flowers and chocolates are nice, the more specific you can be with your other, the better the response.

If you're feeling particularly sappy, I encourage you to look at http://kissssing.blogspot.com It's got cool old pictures and quotes from people, movies and songs dealing with love. For example:

"When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks." - Natalie Clifford Barney

And for any of you sans boyfriend/girlfriend, try this hilarious website out: www.pickuphelp.com

A Grander Scheme

**Author's Note: I don't claim to know much about any sort of physics and I juuust know enough math to be dangerous - and this post touches on both. Which is to say that there's a pretty good chance I'll have said something inaccurate before it's all said and done. You'll find it amusing or incredibly boring. I don't mean to "high-brow" anyone and I'm not speaking just to sound smart. I really like stuff like this.

I was visiting with another math teacher (RR) the other day after school and we shared some things that we’ve heard over the years dealing with math/science and spirituality. Stuff like that really intrigues me. I get geeked out over it. I’m easily impressed with how intelligent people can be and the insights they posses. RR was telling me how a pastor friend of his (who is also a chemical engineer) was explaining why it was so hard for people to understand what Jesus was saying to them (parables, or like when he told Nicodemus he had to be “born again” - Nicodemus took a literal meaning, while Jesus meant it in a Spiritual context). When Jesus spoke, it was usually on a completely different plane, or level, than people were used to hearing so many didn’t grasp the initial or true meaning. This made sense to me because there are examples in the Bible where people didn’t understand, or took an incorrect meaning away from what was said. The friend went on to say that when Jesus spoke it was from a Quantum level of understanding (or Einsteinian) whereas we’re thinking more on a Classical (or Newtonian/Galilean) level.

• {A brief explanation of the two: Classical Mechanics, as best as I know, are the studies of how “parts” move and work together - thermodynamics, astrophysics, energy conservation, gravitational laws, electricity, hydraulics, hydrodynamic pressure, electromagnetic induction, biomechanics, accoustics, etc. Think Leonardo DaVinci, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Michael Faraday, Daniel Bernoulli, Rudolf Clausius.... Quantum Mechanics are, again as best as I know, are how the parts of the “parts” move and work together - special relativity, particle physics, nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, quantum statistical mechanics, string theory, - even nanotechnology. Think Albert Einstein, Steven Hawking, John Dalton. To dumb-it waaaay down it’s like comparing the Industrial Age of 100 years ago with the Technological Age of today: though one is more advanced than the other, you still need the industrial to explain the technological.}

Both ways are used to explain the world we live in, but take very different approaches. There is currently little, if anything, that connects the two approaches into a Grand Unified Theory, but both have their place in the world and are necessary. For the sake of the analogy, Quantum Mechanics takes Classical Mechanics to another completely different level. It’s like the difference between being able to explain what happens on Earth vs. being able to explain what happens with anything anywhere. If there happens to be a particle physicist reading this, I apologize for my simplistic take to complex things....all that to say that it’s probably typical for us not to “get” God. My little brain is not capable of understanding all that God is about. When He tells me to do something, he sees what that will lead to 1,000 decisions later, whereas I have difficulty seeing the second outcome, if I’m lucky! The good news is that I don’t have to know everything about God to know that He loves me and made me for a reason.

• {If I knew anything about physics I’d break into how Light can behave as though it’s made up of particles, but can also behave as though it’s made up of waves - though they seem to conflict each other, both can be used to describe what Light is. Make your own analogy here: }
  

To put it yet another way (in more familiar terms to me) God is theoretical probability and I’m experimental (actual) probability. If I toss a coin 100 times, I should, in theory, get “tails” 50 times. Now if I actually take a coin and toss it 100 times, I’m likely to get other amounts of tails like 46, 51, 39, 59 or 48. Even if I try this experiment 10 more times, it’s a lot more likely that I’ll get amounts other than 50. But even if once and awhile I actually get 50 tails, the total sum of my coin tosses probably isn’t 50% tails. But here’s the really cool part: theoretical probablilty and experimental probability can only be related to each other if you do something abstract that is mathematically impossible!. . . .(excited yet?) Meaning, the experimental probability and the theoretical probability will end up agreeing (or being the same) if you toss the coin infinity times! (You can try it, but...) It’s called the Law of Large Numbers. The only way God and I are going to be on the same page is if a miracle happens - and that miracle is Jesus. He is that abstract idea (both God and man) that did the impossible (died for MY sins for Love’s sake) and tied together two things that were never going to meet (me and God). There. I just casually proved that Jesus = infinity. Haha!

Boy, that was a mouthful. My head hurts a little.

Kind of on the same lines, RR also shared with me something he read relating the importance of balancing Works and Faith. Works without Faith is lacking meaning and is empty. Faith without Works is shallow and is also empty. Only when the two are working together do they greatly increase the significance of the Faith and the Works. The same is true with our words and our deeds - for us to be believed, or to be reliable, or to be trustworthy, we aught to “walk the walk and talk the talk”. Much like when you strike a tuning fork, you hear a single, pure, note because the two prongs are vibrating together (or working together) for the purpose for which it was made. Take one of the prongs away and do you know what you hear? Well...I don’t really know because I’ve never done it, but I know it’s not a single, pure note. Actually, I do know - there’s no noise. One prong, without the other, does not give the desired affect. Faith without Works and words without action will not give the desired affect.

I never stop being amazed how God reveals himself to people - even using science and math!

Finally, for you hoops lovers, youtube "Larry Bird Greatest passer of all time" and enjoy.