There Are No Beginnings
Lately my daughter has been curious about beginnings. While I carefully use
the phrase, one of the first, she wants to know the first. For after looking
at a book of dinosaurs, I pointed out the sleek, little coelophysis as being
one of the first, and she asked, what was the first dinosaur.
Not only could I not answer that question, it got me thinking that there
are no firsts and no beginnings. Like Ken Nordine says in the Kingdom of Noxt:
You know how things begin
You tell yourself, hey, hey, this is it
This is the beginning
And that's what it becomes
For you and for me
That's because beginnings are arbitrary
They only happen when you tell yourself
They're going to happen
Maybe that's why they happen the way they do
Anytime you want them to.
So I thought it would be helpful to explain this general principle of
Arbitrary Beginnings by making an analogy with a tree. Using my
pseudo-socratic method, the conversation went something like this:
| Me: |
When would you say a tree begins?
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| Her: |
I don't know. When?
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| Me: |
Hrm. If I said, "Let's start an apple tree" what would we do?
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| Her: |
Plant it?
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| Me: |
OK. So we could do down to the store and buy a baby apple tree, dig a hole,
and put the tree in it, and that would be the beginning of that
tree, right?
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| Her: |
Uhm, OK.
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| Me: |
But the tree was already living in a pot down at the store, so it really
isn't the tree's real beginning, is it?
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| Her: |
But what if we got and planted the tree from a seed?
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| Me: |
Good idea. But putting an apple seed in the ground could be called the beginning,
but the baby tree doesn't pop out of its seed for a few days.
For the seed needs to soak in lots of water and then hydrolytic enzymes
are activated to convert stored resources, like starch and…
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| Her: |
What?
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| Me: |
Oh, sorry. Nevermind. However, the baby plant was already in the seed
before we put it in the ground, so that really can't be a beginning.
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| Her: |
So the tree begins when the seed is made?
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| Me: |
Great idea. But the seed is made gradually when the apple starts to develop,
as the same cells that make the apple, start to make the seeds inside it as well.
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| Her: |
What about when the apple begins?
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| Me: |
Another good idea. Remember the bee carrying the pollen from one apple tree
to the flower of another? And the tree uses the pollen to merge with its own
seed eggs (did you know that apple trees have eggs?) to start to make the
fruit and the seeds.
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| Her: |
Uhm, but an apple doesn't look like a tree.
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| Me: |
Right, and the pollen isn't more of an apple or a tree. You saw pictures
of those crazy looking things. There are very few beginnings, as most
things just slowly change. The first mammals looked almost like reptiles,
and the first birds looked just like dinosaurs to the point where it is
hard to classify it as either a dinosaur or a bird.
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| Her: |
Like the platypus!
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| Me: |
You are brilliant. Yes, the platypus doesn't care whether we call
it a mammal or a reptile. Labels, like "mammal" and "the beginning" are
invented by people, for the world seldom acts like that.
So this, dear reader, is why the "Big Bang" just demonstrates why I think we
need to learn a lot more. But there are some natural beginnings, right?
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