the Artist and Mechanic

In sixth from for systems of knowledge I had read a book called ‘Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance’. I’m sure many of you had read it. Besides narrating the story of a journey and some psychological journey as well, it discusses the dichotomy of technology versus aesthetics. At least it does, if I remember correctly and understood well.

Basically, for those who didn’t study this yet, or couldn’t be bothered during their years of studies, it’s the problem with technology that a person can usually either understand how a machine works, or appreciate the aesthetic beauty of it. In other words, someone is either and artist (or designer) or and engineer.

That is not to say that there is nothing beautiful about a machine working perfectly, and that there is nothing at least mathematical about aesthetic design.

If I remember well, the conclusion of the author is that there are people who can both understand a machine and appreciate the external beauty of it, but will be inclined one way more than the other. So, I can see a car has nice curves and the design is sleek and elegant and so on, and I know a bit about how it works. Or I can dismantle an engine and put it back together in minutes and look at the body work as a nice way to cover it up.

I am not going to discuss how true or false this is in humans, my thoughts are on how it’s definitely not true for our Engineer (as mentioned in the last blog).

So, God is the creator of all. Yes? Yes.

Moving on from there:

Now let’s look around, what do we see?

Well, I’m seeing my kitchen, so hold on…

Up on the roof…well, fine, the roof doesn’t help as all I can see is buildings any way. Hmmm…

Let’s imagine we’re in the country side :)

What we see is beauty. The sky, the clouds, the rain, the sun the rainbow, the stars and all the stuff out there in space. Trees, grass, rocks, plants, all beautiful, and then of course we, ourselves, yes, I don’t care what inferiority complex you have, YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL.

Right, so we have to say that God is an amazing artist, and knows how to make things aesthetically brilliant. I mean seriously, from the totally unbelievable pinks, oranges and purples of a sunset to the beautiful grays, blues, and indeed purples of a storm cloud. From how the light shines through clouds, to how it reflects off drops of water on leaves after a rain.

He’s an artist, a brilliant one, and please let’s not forget, he works in 3D and is changing his masterpiece constantly.

Right, and we know that He knows how things work. Please refer to my last blog. But besides what I said then, I want to mention a few other little things.

Lol…little things… you’ll get it in a bit.

Now, I know that all of you know what I’m about to talk about, but think about it in this point of view, and it’s more amazing.

Everything is made up of atoms! No, seriously, everything from the nail on your little toe to the island we’re standing on (I live in Malta for any random reader) is made up of little tiny particles, which in turn are made up of even smaller things grouped together or spinning around sharing stuff and so on… simply put. But! The point is they’re there, and they work, and they’re still spinning or vibrating or whatever, and they hold together. They’re a googolplex googolplexes of little tiny universes right next to each other forming, technically, the universe we live in.

Universes inside universes, as Stephen King explains in one of the Dark Tower books.

Lets go a bit bigger, the human body. THE HUMAN BODY! Yes, you are one of those universes. A universe made up of organs and cells moving around one another, interacting, and, most of the time, working wonderfully. And please remember, everything in you is also made up of those tiny other universes mentioned earlier.

Ignoring all the other living things on our dear little green, blue and sometimes grey planet, lets go bigger to our actual universe. Meaning all those big balls of gas, fire, rock, metal and all that spinning around in an amazing intricate dance choreographed by physics and gravity. And it works!

It’s beautiful and it works.

The moon, a piece of rock that inspired so much science fiction, poetry and myths, is undoubtedly beautiful, both when it’s a nice orange or when it’s a cold mysterious silver. But there’s a lot of physics and science keeping it from crashing into all those poets. And the Creator made it beautiful, and knows how it works.

I'm not going to try go into all the galaxies and stars and other stuff out there. but just think, it's pretty and complicated.

For all the physics students out there. We say Newton or whoever discovered the laws of motion (inexact as they may be) but who wrote them? Who actually installed all the laws we take for granted, that make everything spin and dance wonderfully? HE DID! Indeed, our Engineer, our Artist, our Mechanic, our God.