I don’t know about you, but I often stop and think about it, contemplate what the heck I’m doing, why are we here and why us. Don’t you? We can walk and chew gum, we talk and dress and drive, invent a lot of stuff, communicate, buy water in bottles, wear shoes and the list is long. And we can’t find anybody else like us or close to us at all in this vast universe space thing we supposedly live in. Sounds familiar? And that’s where the “comprehension” part comes in – for me.
There are certain aspects of our existence we as human beings cannot comprehend. That Carla is still dating that loser jerk and politicians haven’t found a way to move the country forward instead of constantly bicker to save their own political behinds; that baseball crowns a World Champion every year when only two countries are involved (and Canada is like a sibling to us, yeah?), why bicycle helmets have to make everybody look so dorky; those are but a few of the things we have a hard time comprehending; but we can for the most if we try hard.
But the really big one, the one we cannot understand, comprehend or cannot be explained into believing is that thing about the universe, the solar system we supposedly sit in the middle of. Okay, I can swing with the part about where we are, but it’s the infinity, meaning the unlimited extent of time, space, distance and quantity that we can’t cope with, cannot comprehend. So we fly off into the sunset, the universe and way beyond and it never ends; simple enough? But really thinking about it; doesn’t it make you a tiny bit dizzy? Okay I hear Carla’s loser friend saying: “It gotta end somewhere…” Yeah, but if it does, what’s on the other side? There gotta be something… Yeah, but only infinity (I better sit down now).
It’s the thought of infinity, the never ending part I get dizzy thinking about. It’s like waiting in the dentist's office for that root-canal surgery, but a lot longer. The experts will try to explain it to us, and every time they finish, believing it’s understandable and logical, I point a shaking finger at them and say: “But then what? If we are in this huge cosmic ball, there still has to be something beyond… So there; it will never end.” And it never will. It’s a fact we cannot comprehend; weird, huh?
Every time my thoughts head down Infinity Way, I do feel humbled concerning who I am, why and where; it puts a lot into perspective, it really does. In spite that I believe I am the center of the universe (especially on birthdays and stuff) my thoughts quickly dismiss that arrogant feeling and I find myself in the place I should be most of the time: happy, smiling, friendly, human, sharing and content, because I realize that I am just this tiny cosmic speck (with dorky looking bicycle helmet), and there is not a heck of a lot I can do about that infinity thing – and I’m fine with that, also because it makes me dizzy.
SOCCER/FOOTBALL
For those of you living under a rock, the 2011 World Cup Women Soccer (football, that is), is raging on in Germany. Yesterday I watched one of the most exciting soccer games I have ever watched, men or women – and I have coached and watched thousands of games. The American women’s team was fighting against the wind, played most of the game with 10 players (Brazil with 11), a few calls not going their way, but by never giving up, came from behind and won the game in such extraordinary fashion, dramatic and to the wire – I also left the field exhausted, and I had only been watching; it was a pure piece of poetic justice.
The American’s coach Pia Sundhage is Swedish, and her comment after this awesome game was that she was yet again stunned about the tenacity, the determination never to give up that every single player exposed. She added that to her, this fierce will to win at all cost is what America is all about – I couldn’t agree more.
Think about infinity once in a while – I do, especially when I get too much into myself, me into that self-inflicted center of the cosmos. Together with that and the proverbial deep breath, I’m back on earth, both feet (in shoes) planted solidly on the ground, eating Humble Pie. It tastes good – it really does, once in a while...
Best Regards, Peter
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