I missed doing my ABC journal while I was out of town, and it may take me a couple of days to catch up, but I'm determined!The 17th letter is Q, and my favorite Q words are QUEST, QUESTION and QUANTUM.
I've been reading Madeline L'Engle's book, And It Was Good, Reflections on Beginnings. She addressed one of my favorite thoughts about quantum theory: that all things are in relationship. Nothing happens in isolation; nothing exists in isolation. We are community--ONE. Scientists have discovered that there cannot be A quantum--quanta only exist in relationship with each other. And quantum theory speaks to the fact that the Oberver makes a difference--nothing can actually be studied objectively. NOTHING. Once it has been observed, that observation changes it. What IT is, depends on the Observer, not the IT. I saw a little docu-drama back in the Fall of 2004, What the Bleep Do We Know. It was about quantum theory in relationship to spirituality. Scientists are discovering what mystic knew centuries ago--that there is a common source of energy that connects EVERYTHING, that there is a "web" of life--that everything is in relationship with everything else, that how the Observer "sees" changes what's being observed, that a butterfly flapping its wings in Panama causes a tidal wave in Timbucktoo. What we say matters. What we do matters. What we do HERE, affects those over there--and what's more, those over there are ONE with ME, so it comes back and affects me, too....ZZZZZTTTTTT....
I read a book entitled Quantum Theology about the same time that I saw The Bleep--in fact, I've read it several times. It's way too big for me grasp or understand, and I don't know enough to debate whether it's "right" or "wrong", but it makes me think, and wonder, and ask QUESTIONS. I love the QUEST, the search for the answers. And I'm finally learning that it doesn't even matter if I never find the answer--the joy is in the quest and the question.
Later, in her book, L'Engle discusses "questions" and the freedom to ask them. She talks about how "defensive" some people get when we explore the unanswerable questions. She comments: "I am not comfortable in a closed system where there are no questions left to ask, or where questions are shunned as heresy." I remember Sr. Mary (from my Cenacle days) saying, "If there's anything the church must ask forgiveness for, it's for not allowing the questions." L'Engle continues, "...scientists are a great deal more humble now than they were half a century ago. It's is a pity that more theologians do not also have this humility before God's mighty acts of creation. Why do people who are Christian feel so zealously that they have to protect God from truth?"
The questions are there for the asking. M. Scott Peck wrote in one of his books, that surely it would be heaven NOT to have to have the answers. I agree. The questions are there--they are many. And I can't imagine the Beloved Parent not absolutely delighting in the questions and the curiosity of the child. After all--we are made in the image of our Parent--curious and delighted by the questions that cause our brains to short circuit! ZZZZZZTTTTTTTT! Awesome!
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