Writing missionaries is always so hard. Do I talk about spiritual things? Do I offer something that you don’t get in
your missionary life? Do I talk about my
life? Maybe I’ll just talk to you about
physics. If there is one thing in life I
know well it is physics, which is how we met in the first place. You asked for help on your homework, and then
you needed to use the internet, but it was out at our place as well. So I introduced you to Mitch, Nich, and Mike
and they introduced you to Rebecca Black.
I remember being slightly embarrassed and talked to them about being
more presentable when I bring girls over.
Jokingly of course… yet not at the same time.
Back to physics. Today I learned about Fresnel coefficients,
but they are pronounced without the “s”.
They are a big mess of equations that tell us how light reflects and
transmits. They are ugly, hard to work
with, slightly unintuitive but strangely enough they do a good job of
explaining how light passes through glass, such as a stained glass window. Do you see those much in Ireland? It is interesting how something so elegant
and simple can be so hard to grasp. And
even then the model breaks down quite easily.
Light isn’t something that can be easily picked apart and understood,
despite our best efforts. And even if we
could explain it completely it can’t be appreciated from this view, the end
result is a lot of unfulfilling work and a head ache. One may know more about light from Fresnel
(Don’t forget the “s” is silent) coefficients, but it is much more worthwhile
to go outside and feel the light. There
is value in knowledge but that cannot replace feeling the light.
It is fitting that light is often associated
with truth. We often think of the truth
as being clear and straight forward. Of
course even the simplest of truths have been dissected and reconstructed in
models that only work under certain conditions.
One would hope that when the truth is presented that it would be
recognized but sometimes it fails to take grasp. Among the classes I take now I also sit in on
Chem 105 to learn some basic chemistry for grad school. It is funny to see the teacher talk about
atomic structure, something we learn in physics, and see the faces of the people
who are learning it for the first time. The
truth is sometimes, such as this case, far from eloquent. Sometimes truth is very eloquent but
sometimes not. We need to toss away what
we know and even what we know we can know to accept some truths. Some
truth is so bizarre that we never can really know it, we just get used to
it. Perhaps a better way to say that
last sentence is there is value in learning the truth but that cannot replace
accepting the truth.
Well I’m sorry to have gone on about such a
boring subject as physics. I’d have to
imagine that there is zero to no relevance to your life. You’ll have to forgive my rambling, yesterday
was a long day and I’m tired today. I
enjoy writing other people though. I
feel like I’m more honest with other people than I am myself. I don’t have much to be honest about but at
least I know that I’m not hiding anything.
For the record everything is going well. Classes, research, running, all the
above. I’m really good at doing the
things I’m good at. It’s the more
challenging things where I get hung up now and then. I try not to get frustrated with those
things. I’m not perfect, but I’m getting
good at that too. Now I just get
disappointed. That is a good thing, to
feel a longing for something better and be disappointed not to having that thing,
so long as that longing doesn’t detract from the very thing we want to have. Or want to be.
This letter is getting a little long. I have a tendency to dominate
conversations. I’d have to imagine that
the length of this letter may be a bit much.
If sister missionaries are anything like brother missionaries your
companion has already or will ask you soon, “Well who is that from?” and you’ll
say “Just a friend,” to which she will say in a deeper teasing voice as a wide
grin spreads across her face, “That’s a friend with an awful lot to say...” or
something of the sort. Just tell your
companion that I’ve spent over half the letter talking about physics. Nothing kills a conversation like physics. I suppose that is why I’m talking about it
with you. You can’t walk away from me,
or at least if you do I won’t know any better.
That being said I’m running out of steam. You’re a wonderful person and are doing great
things. If you don’t get back for a
while don’t feel bad. The only person I wrote
besides my family by the end of my mission was Taylor now and then. And that was mostly to keep from going
sane. Most of our letters ended with
some sort of schematic of what our apartment after the mission would look
like. We fought over whether to get a
rounded couch or not and I asserted several times that I didn’t like bean bags. We never did have a rounded couch, and he’ll
take his bean bag with him next year. We
never had a fire pole that landed in a hot tub either. But despite the lack of what we anticipated,
our lives are furnished with memories, from Taylor and others as well. In my house I have a painted sheet on the wall,
some skis in the corner, and a picture of a tired bear that I bought in Park
City. On that note keep up the Lord’s
work and know that we are all rooting for you.
Peace, love,
and I better stop before I get sidetracked again,
Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment