Aiming High

Watched several public talks over the TED video service. TED is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design. People who are researchers, scientists and experts in their fields talk on topics that matter and should be spread to everyone else. The talks cover all academic disciplines of science, education, design aesthetics and mechanics, as well as the combination of all of these things as they intersect and are used in creating arts and entertainment.

These talks are often seminal; jaw dropping nearly every time. More importantly the talks have expanded all over the United States and globally. People from all walks of life have ideas that matter to share. I have a local friend who has presented more than once, and has also developed videos for TED and become a narrator and host interviewer for several other sessions. She is a housewife. She is interested in organic gardening. She is dedicated to living healthy and eating healthy. She has developed an expertise that has moved many other people to replicate her work and spread home-based organic gardening and growing food for the household table. She now controls much of her environment that ensures her continued health and that of her family.

Once Shawna wrote a book. Now she has authored several. And she is on the speaking circuit in several topical arenas and travels the world to share her ideas and learn still new and wondrous things.

Her story is positive. TED’s story is positive. The fact that all of these elements come together without planning and compel our attention, informs us of the power of knowledge.

Knowledge is power. It always has been. If no one told you that you would learn it on your own. Those people who say ‘let George do it” or sit on their hands when needs run rampant in their community, will benefit from the living conditions and quality of life that others make happen around them. But they will be denied the power of knowledge they could have had if they had become engaged in the community and its processes in the first place. Now they are left behind; cared for but not a player. The others are the players and movers and shakers. And they understand much more and learn still more.

That’s the nature of education. It is also the nature of discovery and self discovery and development. We learn about the basics in life in the ‘margins of our understanding’. Those margins are common and everywhere. We drive down the street and wonder why something exists as it does; asking the question in wonder is the beginning step. Looking into it more, reading about it, researching the topic and all the rest, leads to a broader and fuller understanding of the situation and related topics. The person involved – you or your neighbors – are learning much about life and have expanded their lives accordingly.

Think about the universe. Is it static for you or dynamic? Is it moving? Darting about, expanding or contracting? Not your life, but the universe itself that surrounds you and the rest of us?

I would answer in my old and faithful manner by saying it is ‘basic physics’. And that would be true. It is particle physics, astrophysics, and all that sort of thing. All rolled up in one. The basic answer is the universe is expanding at a faster and faster speed. It is not static, and it is not contracting. Expanding like a ball of gas toward a future of unending promise and possibility.

Think of that. Think of the intellect, the puzzles to ponder and solve, the facts now unknown but which will be known in time. Think about the possibilities all of those facts hold for each of us. New sciences, new fields of education, new academic disciplines to produce and expand. Expand to fill the space and time and promise we all hold - alone and together.

Most elected officials do not think on these things. They invest time and energy in things more tangible for themselves. But the brain power of each of us and all of us diminishes those politicians. Smart leaders know to fund and support those who are smart and creative. Margaret Thatcher asked British scientists why the UK ought to invest huge sums of money in the CERN Large Hadron Collider project. She asked them to help the decision makers in government understand why this investment should be made?

And they did. But they had to bring the discussion down to their level of understanding before the argument and funding request was won. They were successful and the CERN LHC is in existence and operating fully as we speak.

Adding to particle physics research happening around the globe in the US and elsewhere, CERN is expanding not only our understanding of the universe but also expanding the discipline of physics itself. The more we know the more we need to know.

This is the stuff of science. It is the core of human understanding of our world and universe. It transcends nationalities, borders and ethnicity. It transcends governments as well. Like understanding and knowledge, peace is such a discipline. When we work together for common goals we ignore weapons of war; we also ignore – in fact don’t even think about – ideological differences. They truly do not matter when it is the universe we are pondering.

So for all of us fretting about potential dangers of a Trump presidency, please know there are many intelligent people who have transcended such worries. For them their sights are aimed much higher. To the skies and space beyond.

Thank God someone is. Even more that someone cares.

January 12, 2017