Interesting Structures

"Somehow, after all, as the universe ebbs toward its final equilibrium … it manages to create interesting structures." -James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science During a difficult period in my life, I often found myself walking outside at night and gazing at the stars. As I looked, my thoughts would always turn to the story of how it all came to be. From nothingness at first. Then an explosion, sending strands of glowing hot gases into the cosmic darkness. Drawn together by gravity these gases formed airy nebulae and kaleidoscopic galaxies, one of which contained a small star and a small rock and some sentient atoms. Somehow thinking about the story of the universe made me feel better. Perhaps it was a sense of perspective, a feeling of smallness and insignificance of my self and all the issues in my life. Perhaps it was also distraction, as gazing into the stars was like a meditation of sorts and helped to quieten my anxious mind. But perhaps most importantly, the story of the universe filled me with a sense of hope. Realising that out of the cosmic darkness came the universe, stars and life. And if that could happen then perhaps from my own darkness I could create some interesting, and beautiful, structures.