How the time is flying here in Aachen. Took me absolute ages to settle down and now I realise the days are running out at rather an alarming rate. We have had such stimulating and interesting days this week. Firstly in the physics institute where our heads were filled with crazy info on the building blocks of the universe, then the computer centre where we got to spend time in the virtual reality 'cave', and today the /architecture/urban planning department where we went out into the laboratory that is Aachen and looked at the process of historical development.
Aachen is a multi-faceted city. There is the university with 40 000 students- that lifestyle and attitude; then just a few streets away, the mega-rich neighbourhood- people with old and new money, that Simon showed me on his tour last week. Walk a few streets in another direction, and one immediately notices that the people are poor and struggling, and there are also many more people clearly living on the streets than I expected. I guess there are many towns in the world like this, but here I feel it is all in really close proximity.
Aachen was originally a Roman town, and it is famous for the hot springs. The Romans built Aachen in the classical chess-board "castrum'', very ordered and regulated. Charlemagne came and the magnificent cathedral became the main feature. The altar of the cathedral traditionally has to face east, towards the rising sun, and so the city is orientated around that. Where the Carolinian roads then intercept with the Roman streets, there are often unusual triangular shapes. In the Medieval times, a circular city wall was built and the roads were narrower and more windy. Come the 1800's, the town planners were more into the classical boulevard style, as can be seen in front of the city theatre. Aachen in a huge fusion of different styles and spaces, and it all works beautifully. It is complex and interesting and connects all these different historical ages.
I have been thinking about the people and events of our lives, the seeming randomness of it, but yet how one somehow senses the invisible ties that hold those events and people together. There are so many seemingly unrelated paths and choices, but somehow beneath that, the mystical fibres that bind, that order, and cause these
experiences and relationships with things, places and people to converge and present sudden and magical answers. Serendipity. Connectedness. Complexity, Beauty. Infinite possibilities.
I realised that my thoughts have been connected to all the experiences I have had this week. The amazing building blocks of the universe: that the huge expanse of space is mirrored in the internal workings of the atoms, in the neutrons and quarks and bosons. That science is about the very particles that make up our universe, the huge spaces between them and the forces and fields that glue it all together. Connectedness. Imagine I learnt this week about the Higgs boson called the "God Particle". For me the incredible fusion between science and the spiritual life.
In the virtual reality cave, we examined space, and looked at tangible concepts, that are yet completely intangible. We believe that they are there, so they are. The visible and the invisible connected.
In my walks and tours around Aachen, I am reflecting on my life and path, looking at how the place developed, the spaces connected, the seeming unrelated elements fused into one unusual and beautiful town. I am thinking how my life has evolved, the people and the spaces connected, and how all the seemingly unrelated elements reveal themselves to be perfectly aligned, again and again. I ask myself how I can possibly doubt this, as I am living in the middle of this miracle. I feel so inherently like a particle of God.
Is this what love does? Bring it on.
My wish tonight, may we all perceive the order, the serendipity, the blessed continuity of our lives, no matter our religion or creed, and have the humility to feel gratitude for it. Amen.
http://www.ted.com/talks/carter_emmart_demos_a_3d_atlas_of_the_universe.html
Follow this link to see a 6 minute mind-blowing demonstration of a 3-D map of the universe.
Aachen is a multi-faceted city. There is the university with 40 000 students- that lifestyle and attitude; then just a few streets away, the mega-rich neighbourhood- people with old and new money, that Simon showed me on his tour last week. Walk a few streets in another direction, and one immediately notices that the people are poor and struggling, and there are also many more people clearly living on the streets than I expected. I guess there are many towns in the world like this, but here I feel it is all in really close proximity.
Aachen was originally a Roman town, and it is famous for the hot springs. The Romans built Aachen in the classical chess-board "castrum'', very ordered and regulated. Charlemagne came and the magnificent cathedral became the main feature. The altar of the cathedral traditionally has to face east, towards the rising sun, and so the city is orientated around that. Where the Carolinian roads then intercept with the Roman streets, there are often unusual triangular shapes. In the Medieval times, a circular city wall was built and the roads were narrower and more windy. Come the 1800's, the town planners were more into the classical boulevard style, as can be seen in front of the city theatre. Aachen in a huge fusion of different styles and spaces, and it all works beautifully. It is complex and interesting and connects all these different historical ages.
I have been thinking about the people and events of our lives, the seeming randomness of it, but yet how one somehow senses the invisible ties that hold those events and people together. There are so many seemingly unrelated paths and choices, but somehow beneath that, the mystical fibres that bind, that order, and cause these
experiences and relationships with things, places and people to converge and present sudden and magical answers. Serendipity. Connectedness. Complexity, Beauty. Infinite possibilities.
I realised that my thoughts have been connected to all the experiences I have had this week. The amazing building blocks of the universe: that the huge expanse of space is mirrored in the internal workings of the atoms, in the neutrons and quarks and bosons. That science is about the very particles that make up our universe, the huge spaces between them and the forces and fields that glue it all together. Connectedness. Imagine I learnt this week about the Higgs boson called the "God Particle". For me the incredible fusion between science and the spiritual life.
In the virtual reality cave, we examined space, and looked at tangible concepts, that are yet completely intangible. We believe that they are there, so they are. The visible and the invisible connected.
In my walks and tours around Aachen, I am reflecting on my life and path, looking at how the place developed, the spaces connected, the seeming unrelated elements fused into one unusual and beautiful town. I am thinking how my life has evolved, the people and the spaces connected, and how all the seemingly unrelated elements reveal themselves to be perfectly aligned, again and again. I ask myself how I can possibly doubt this, as I am living in the middle of this miracle. I feel so inherently like a particle of God.
Is this what love does? Bring it on.
My wish tonight, may we all perceive the order, the serendipity, the blessed continuity of our lives, no matter our religion or creed, and have the humility to feel gratitude for it. Amen.
http://www.ted.com/talks/carter_emmart_demos_a_3d_atlas_of_the_universe.html
Follow this link to see a 6 minute mind-blowing demonstration of a 3-D map of the universe.
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