Recently I got to thinking about energy. Well, energy and death actually. I remember the one thing I actually learnt in physics in school, back in ole' Limeyland, was that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be converted. Now, I don't know if I even am remembering that little energetic tidbit correctly. But, it got me thinking about death. I grew up with parents who were involved in the charismatic renewal in the '60's. We bounced around churches in the '70's and '80's, always coming back to the Church of England (Thank you very much Henry VIII.) My Mum is very spiritual and really laid the foundation for my religious beliefs. I converted to Catholicism when my first son was baptized, and yet....like everyone else I am sure, I can't get my head around the hereafter. I mean, it seems terrible to think all this, all this life and love and complication and pain and wonder can't just be for shit. Right? Yet, how on earth can there be this big old, white bearded guy in the sky, with a toga and brown sandals, welcoming us to some Elysium after we go belly up.
Enter my energy epiphany! I got to thinking - some smart arse has probably already thought of this...I never was very original - and I wondered if the little energy tidbit actually applies to human beings! I thought about it in a very child-like way (the way I think about most things) and I worked out that if our bodies run on energy, acquired from elsewhere (food, water etc), and our brains have electrical impulses (don't know where the heck those babies come from...possible flaw in the plan?) then, it can't be destroyed. Can it? Maybe there is some conversion of all our energy so that when we die, according to the energy law it all has to go somewhere else. (And I really hope it doesn't just mean back to the earth in a nice, green, decomposition, kinda of way.) I must note here, that when I told my husband, in glee thinking I had worked out one of the biggest questions the human race has pondered upon...he didn;t seem quite so excited as I did?!
The one thing I haven't worked out is a mind/body dilemma. By that I mean, does our spirit and everything that is the essence of us, run on the energy that our body uses? If not then none of this matters, 'cause where the physical energy goes, doesn't matter a whit if the spirit is not going along for the ride.
My musing for the day. Any thoughts? Anyone?