Friday, July 13, 2007

"The Whole Story of the Whole Cosmos for the Whole Person"

It's humbling when someone else says it better than you do, especially when you've been trying for a while. It's also tempting, because it'd be awfully easy to steal their stuff. I've been humbled and tempted twice as I thought about starting this blog.

The Metanexus Institute said it better in the heading of several of their newsletters: "Seeking the whole story of the whole cosmos for the whole person." "Whole story" said to me, science and spirit. "Whole cosmos" said, inner space as well as outer space. "Whole person" said, heart as well as head. And "seeking," well, that was the whole point. Wish I had said it first.

Then Michael Wilt, editor of the online Nimble Spirit Review,
said it better too. In plugging the Story-of-Everything Place, the web site from which this blog originates, he celebrated the "cosmology cavalcade":


Stories of ultimate beginnings have always fascinated me. That there are so many of them is no surprise, given the diversity found on the planet in terms of geography, climate, and general living conditions. One could hardly expect peoples, preliterate or otherwise, to come up with common expressions of their origins when day-to-day experience ranges from Arctic ice to Saharan desert to Amazon rainforest to Rocky Mountains. Life experience at the 65th parallel will undoubtedly lead to a different cosmology than that at the equator. The cosmology of people who are enslaved will be different from that of those who enslave them. And then science brings its own vast set of empirical observations to bear on our exploration.

Wilt saw the Story-of-Everything Place as a kind of "cosmological bazaar" where people bring their stories, exchange them, and create new ones. Well, it's not that yet--it hasn't even gotten going--but that is indeed the idea. Wish I had said it first.

But I didn't. Which means I'm going to have to give in to a little temptation and "borrow" some language in order to launch this blog. Its subject matter: those whole stories of the whole cosmos for the whole person. Its spirit: the bazaar. Next Saturday's question: Is the Bible a Story of Everything? If you drop in, bring a friend. Even better, bring a story.

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COPYRIGHT (C) 2007 JOHN N. KOTRE

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

loved the story of everything so much--i read parts of it to my grand daughter and let her read it out loud to me and ask questions-kids have such intersting interpretations of life--anyways-i thought someone might enjoy this little bit of humor from long ago days gone by--in my mis-spent youth i would have long discussions with my pal richard about the origins on the universe and the absurdity of life in general-usually under the influence of some mind altering substance--our inevitible conclusion was "the worms are growing us for food"--i think back on that and wonder sometimes if it isn't true--it always makes me smile when i do---:)

Anonymous said...

"the worms are growing us for food" -- now THAT is an original interpretation of life -- I'll have to get my mind around that one for a bit.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that in the search for the whole cosmos for the whole person for the whole story (or whatever), it comes down to whether a person puts their faith in faith or puts their faith in science. However, whether its science or religion one gets their truth from, it seems to me that in both instances (souls or neutrons), that they both share the urge to find connection. I've read where material that was originally together during the Big Bang that was scattered all over billions of galaxies is now being found to clump back together again. And in Christianity, one of the main beliefs is that all men are part of one body. So it seems as if what everyone seeks is to connect. A famous philosopher (can't remember who said the same) "Only Connect."