[Mahler]

Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 261 – Cosmic Questions

Cosmic Questions (06-08-09)

I’m a big fan of science in general, but in particular I am fascinated with the very small and the very large. Everything in between is pretty interesting, but the concepts of what takes place at the molecular or even the atomic or sub-atomic level just captures my interest. And when I even try to wrap my mind around the vastness, the enormity of our universe, it’s almost a mental overload to try to conceive of the tremendous sizes involved as well as the jaw dropping distances.

Thinking about such things is a mental exercise in itself, but also prompts one to ponder many other important issues, other questions that impact the order of the universe and the harmony of life as we know it. For example: Does the refrigerator light really go off when you close the door? Come on now. How many of you at least one time in your life have not closed the door of a refrigerator very slowly and peeked in the opening to see if the light really goes off? Oh, yeah, you can push that little button near the hinges where the door will strike and the light goes off, but when you actually close the door does it really?

Such questions have puzzled mankind from its very inception and we are genetically and culturally programmed to seek the answers to these questions or forever wonder, why? We are on a constant quest for the elusive answers to the Cosmic Questions and start that search for truth even as a child. Will I really poke my eye out if I play with that stick? Is there, indeed, a boogey man under my bed? Is it a certainty that there are starving children in China who will be saved if I eat my vegetables? Alas, we may never know.

As we grow older, the questions may change, but they haunt us just the same. There are hundreds, possibly even thousands of puzzles that plague us on our journey through the cosmos, all somehow crystallized in the thought of that light and that refrigerator door.

I have to laugh sometimes when thinking about this fitness romp through the cosmos that we are all taking, because it has its great and world-shaking answers to be sought out as well. If I hold that bar just so, will my biceps grow more? Are there really 37 ways to hit my upper, lower, middle, inner and outer Pecs? Do I lose muscle while I sleep? Will my squat improve if I wear a different colored shoe on each foot?

Quite simply, I think that many times we don’t seek the questions of the cosmos, but create them for our own amusement. We can do that by adding difficulty to something that should be essentially easy, complicating the simple and overanalyzing the basic. Understand that I am as guilty as the next guy on this account. I often wonder if we create these Cosmic Questions as a way to stall or a way to prepare for failure. Are we sometimes concocting a ready-made excuse before we even begin. The purist will often say, “just shut up and lift.” There is a lot to recommend that approach. Or, I might paraphrase that by saying, “just shut the refrigerator door.” If you don’t, it’s a sure thing that the light will never go out, that is, until it finally burns out and you will still be standing there watching and wondering.

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Copyright 2004-2009 John R. Gesselberty. Mahler's Monday Morning Motivators (MMMM) may not be copied or used without permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Please Note: No motivator next Monday, June 15. I will be on vacation.

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Have a Great Week!

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