Stefani Mindrebo, Period 2, 10/14/2022

 Literacy & Learning

    In class, we analyzed the quote, "First there was Chaos, the vast immeasurable abyss, Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild." When I first saw this quote, I envisioned an ominous, cloudy sea that stretched infinitely. I imagined that it would smell of salt from the sea, and that it would be dark blue and black. Before anything in the universe was created, there was supposedly nothing, however, the smell of salt and the colors of blue and black aren't nothing. The concept of "nothingness" is somehow simple, yet infinitely complex. From the beginning of creation stories (Greeks), to our current creation stories (modern science/big bang theory), we have the same inability to define the "nothing" that inevitably came before "something".

    Although it has always been implied that at some point in time, there had to be "nothing", this class taught me how convoluted the reality of that nothingness is. Nobody knows what color, smell, taste, or texture of nothing is. Even starting the definition of nothing with "nothing is..." seems inherently wrong because nothing simply isn't. The quote by John Milton also describes the chaos before creation as "immeasurable", "wasteful", and "wild". These adjectives, however, have very different meanings. One could accomplish nothing throughout the day and be seen as "wasteful", the most lively forest can be seen as "wild", and an endless function on a graph can be seen as "immeasurable"/infinite. Just as the word nothing can't be defined, the concept of nothing cannot be classified. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time machines, we will never be able to fully comprehend what came before life. This means that despite the extremely large gap in scientific knowledge and innovation, we have made little progress past what the Greeks hypothesized regarding creation. Furthermore, this means that, against our most basic human desires, we must accept that we don't know and don't understand the arcane details of creation. 

    This quote has also shown that with dark and seemingly hopeless beginnings, the gift of creation can occur. Chaos is where growth is born: where entropy meets order and where the labyrinthine becomes direct. At the end of class, we analyzed the quote, "From darkness and from death Love was born, and with its birth, order and beauty began to banish blind confusion. Love created Light with its companion, radiant Day." This introduced balance that heavily shapes how the Greeks viewed themselves and their gods. Everyone has chaos, order, darkness, and love within them that constantly co-exist. Overall, these quotes and our class discussion has taught me to apply this concept of growth from chaos to my own life. Every solution and modern innovation that we have, started as a problem that can resemble chaos. Everything we have and value today started as nothing. Our world, according to the Greek creation story, was able to evolve from entropy and nothingness, into the many beauties of life that we have today. With will-power and persistence, we too can turn the scary blue and black sea of nothing, into something beautiful.