Einstein Had Dreams Too

(Note: Revised, originally posted in my Facebook Slates)

"In the long narrow office on Speichergasse, the room full of practical ideas, the young patent clerk still sprawls in his chair, head down on his desk. For the past several months, since the middle of April, he has dreamed many dreams about time. His dreams have taken hold of his research. His dreams have worn him out, exhausted him so that he sometimes cannot tell whether he is awake or asleep. But the dreaming is finished. Out of many possible natures of time, imagined in as many nights, one seems compelling. Not that the others are impossible. The others might exist in other worlds."
(Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, p. 6)

I think the term was "significant coincidences", as how my friend Chin put it. Generally, it means some things just happen, not out of random collision but as something that the universe may have somehow conspired. There are patterns and occurrences everywhere: meeting people, letting go of people, opportunities leading to more opportunities, opportunities lost, you get the drift. Frankly, I don't want to think that ALL things happen for a reason, that things happen out of purpose, just because I believe in the power of free will. Well, I guess in the general aspect of things, free will is not isolated thereby creating a certain force that lead to, well, things. That particular common force. Maybe this is what purpose is all about. "Collective consciousness" is another term my friend Roan and I usually discuss especially when we see some creative things that have already manifested which used to play as concepts in our minds; unfortunately, those who realized these are other people, hence, you cannot just easily accuse anyone of ripping off your idea (unless you have proof --- write it down! Apply for copyright! Yeah right!).

So basically, as how Allan Lightman theorized how Albert Einstein may have formulated relativity, such ideas do not just spring out of sheer intellect. Einstein didn't just have those dreams, he addressed them, translated them into scientific equations, and maybe he had them IP-ed in the patent office where he first worked, if not taking the chance by sending his ideas and thoughts to a scientific journal therefore an intended shot at the moon.

When you really think about it, we are constantly shooting for the moon. Even though they say time will tell, time wouldn't tell before you make the first step. The initiative and the target is there, and time ticks on. All what time knows is that the world and life keep turning. Time, like nature, does not need people; people, on one hand , depends on time so much that timing becomes an essence.




I read Einstein's Dreams back in college, and again, through "significant coincidence", I did not just discover this book out of general knowledge: I just happened to be listening to talk radio. Fine, it was Jessica Zafra's show. And my former "idol" fell in-love with the book and she read an excerpt. And then I fell in-love with the excerpt. And so I looked for it (now I realize, if I really, REALLY want something, I look for it and go after it. Explains the sudden trip to Amsterdam, hahaha! Though I did not find it *sob*). Powerbooks only had the Pasay Road branch then, and unfortunately, I could not afford a hard-bound copy of the book with my allowance. It probably took me a couple of years before I finally got to buy the book, this time Powerbooks' branch in Alabang Town Center was already open, and I bought it on New Year's day. I think this was my first Book-of-the-Year, meaning, I have a, well, Book of the Year, which oddly somewhat foretells the year ahead. Last year it was "Notes on a Scandal" (I did not mean to, but I have a system, and the system resulted to this book) and this year, again, incidentally, is Ma Jian's Red Dust, which was highly recommended to me by Mike.

If there's such thing as mental masturbation, well, I think identifying all these sense of inter-connectedness can lead one to multiple mental eurekas.

The book talks about different stories on time, and how its physical reality can be romanticized. It describes how time seems to be suspended, how time flies, how time seems masked sometimes. And how time, despite its supposed linear properties, is actually a cycle or maybe like random billiard balls tossing each other off, and through its force it all equates to equilibrium. It balances the sum of all forces.

What if time does not amount to zero?

Somehow it made me think of relationships --- all kinds --- where time seems to be limited. Life's like this as people die, and things such as your favorite classmate is going to move to another country, or maybe an unforgettable summer course suddenly gives way to a bitter autumn. Or maybe you run out of money, and vacation's over.

Okay, let's look at that uber-romantic and idealized film Before Sunrise. Jesse and Celine knew that they would be apart by the next morning. So what would they do? They maximized the small time they had and had an amazing night. Hence, before they went their separate ways, their time was about to tick to zero. There is a "however" though. There's a hanging prospect of time. Which is funny because in the movie, they named the date December 16, 6 months away, and Vienna. That's how they are supposed to get from point A to B. In a way, this shows that time, in their case, does not terminate at zero despite their initial conditions.

However, instead of making it to B, a twist shows up, and 6 months turned to 9 years, Vienna into Paris.

But what led to the meeting again? Jesse's book. It was hope thrown into the wind. A shot at the moon. She found him after his attempt to find her through his supposed fiction. And in the movie, they admitted that it seemed as though the last time they saw each other was just yesterday.

Time didn't tell, but it would. Who knew the chances that go with the act of writing a book would go through: finding an agent, getting published, putting the word out, being lucky enough to go on a book tour in Europe. If time didn't tell, would it conspire with the universe? Is this how an example of what my university professor always told us in class: "Take that first step and everything would fall into place"?

If Jesse and Celine initially conspired to meet again in 6 months, which would turn into 9 years, which is basically due to a set of coincidences, does that mean time can be that cunning? Or maybe Lightman was right: "Not that the others are impossible. The others might exist in other worlds" --- not that it was impossible, but it might exist in other worlds which is simply another time away. Like nine years.

There are things you can quantify, there are things that only certain relationships will understand. But this understanding needs to come two ways, otherwise this time it's just an illusion. But time can be broken from its quantified stage; in some instances, rules are broken. That's when time stops as a form of measure, it becomes an essence. It's the matter where understanding, purpose, and maybe intention float. A day can seem like an eternity, a moment can be stretched, certain affairs, at the end of the day, may not seem to matter at all, and it would amount to zero. Everything merely exists with respect to time, yet time does not have to be circumstantial. Action can always contest time.

Now that I think about it, I think what made this book special to me is that it makes me hopeful. It's not really a book of hope, but it made me look forward to possibilities: it is never too late, and when the time comes for things to happen, they will. Otherwise, their forces are already exhausted; it's time to move on and look for new things, new significant coincidences, and maybe, step beyond and rise from the collective consciousness, and have your own thing manifested. By yourself. Time wouldn't tell you, but you can tell time what you want to happen. As how a Zobel said it: it is what you make of it.

Back to the film --- it can be argued that the nine years may be a waste, but then, maybe not. If the nine years was a waste, then that one night in Vienna is a waste too. Or is it?

"Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?" (Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman, p. 89)

And it all boils down to choice. Therefore, despite the influence and the conspiracies of the universe, it takes your own free will to get out of the illusion that we are all victims of time.