The Ah Ha moment

The fabled Ah! Ha! moment.  We all have one, once in a while.  Einstein was thinking about an elevator and Ah! Ha!- he understood gravity.  He didn’t need an apple to smack him on the head.

Dorian Sagan (Carl’s son) provided one of my life altering epiphanies.  His book Into the Cool let me see life and creation as being driven by thermodynamics.  It is a scientific theory, and just as the rabidly religious claim the proof of God is faith, my proof of a universal creative force is faith in the scientific process to continually validate or disprove this theory.

I have abandoned all belief in an anthropomorphic god.  The ancient white guy on the marble throne in the clouds throwing lightening bolts at me for SIN doesn’t work.  Religions don’t work; an excuse for the barbarism with which we treat other cultures. 

I can’t comprehend the enormity and complexity of the universe.  The concept that some altruistic being is even aware of a barely complex life form dissipating energy on an insignificant speck of dust we call earth, is beyond my capacity to believe, prove, disprove, or have faith in.

On my journey through life my other Ah Hah came from the writings of Lao Tse.  Little is known of this man, just as little is known of the man Jesus.  He was probably a contemporary of Confucius.  His life boiled into a series of short thoughts about the balance of life- the basis for Yin/Yang, and the concept of the Tao.

The Tao and Thermodynamics are the same.  Over the next few months I’ll publish my interpretation of the Thermodynamics of the Tao.

In the Zone

Yesterday at one or my writing groups we got into "the zone".  The group focused on one of the readings and group think occurred- everyone had an idea, an opinion, a continuation of what had already been said.  Social rules, group etiquette, and boundaries were all forgotten.  WE had the solution, and by gosh (for those other athiestists among us), we were going to be creative.  We were in the collective zone.

Centuries ago Lao Tse taught of the Tao- the zone, the balance.  You can't define it- if you do it's not the Tao.

When I first start to write, I create crap, as my mentor would say, with the idea of going back and fixing it in the re-write process.  As the crap flows I eventually get into my zone, my Tao, as the energy overtakes me.  My mind goes to a place I can't describe and the words, the story, the emotions, the characters all take over.  The story flows from this point.  OK, OK- still crap, but creative crap.

It might be minutes, it might be hours before I arrive.  But when I'm there I know it, and nothing stands in the way.  Energy flows from this Tao and the creative process happens.

I feel the pull to the Tao and plan a getaway next week to find my zone, get my butt in chair, and words on paper.