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Getting it wrong most of the time
Aristotle's Fifth Element went beyond earth, air, water and fire to define something perfect.
He called it the aether, whatever exists beyond air, above it, outside --or maybe inside-- it.
He never defined it exactly. Newton created a mathematical theory to explain the entire cosmos,
but Newton got it wrong. He assumed that time and space exist in some absolute relationship.
Even right ideas can be wrong-headed. Ideas that work in some instances don't work in all.
Einstein proved time and space exist in a flow, all moving in relative motion to one another,
but Einstein got it wrong. To make his universe predictable, he added a "cosmological constant."
Edwin Hubble proved we live in an expanding universe which gave Einstein his "worst blunder."
Now, Stephen Hawking has searched his whole life for a unifying Theory of Everything,
but he seems to have gotten something wrong, because his theory doesn't compute.
We evidently need theories, even if we don't understand them, even if they don't work,
to make us feel better about the capricious forces within a coldly indifferent universe.
Gary Lehmann teaches writing and poetry at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His essays, poetry and short stories are widely published -- about 60 pieces a year. He is the director of the Athenaeum Poetry group which recently published its second chapbook, Poetic Visions. He is also author of a book of poetry entitled Public Lives and Private Secrets [Foothills Press, 2005], and co-author and editor of a book of poetry entitled The Span I Will Cross. His poem "Reporting from Fallujah" was nominated for the 2006 Pushcart Prize.Ê ÊVisit his website at www.garylehmann.blogspot.com. (June 2006)
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