_Contact_, the movie

The movie _Contact_ is the first movie I ever owned. One of these days I'll read the book.

Just re-watched it. It's a wonderful movie because it reminds me that no, I do *not* have to give up appreciation for beauty and magic just because I have a highly scientific side. They are not mutually exclusive, and never have been.

Sometimes, I forget this, and my rational, scientific side tries to convince me that the bits and pieces of reality that I have run into, but which don't yet fit into our current models of detection or scientific understanding, are therefore not real.

Having an idea as to why something beautiful happens does not make it any less magical an occurance. And it should not. Nor does not knowing/being able to explain why or how something occurs make it necessarily not true.

Belief in 'God'? Not really. Belief in something greater than myself? Yes. Although I don't think they/it (unknown gender and plurality) spend all their time watching over, taunting, and/or laughing at us. I suspect far more that they are us, or something like us, just a bit further along.

Watching the movie put some faint, elusive music into my head. I wish I could record it. Or get it enough to the forefront of my mind to grasp more than echos of it. And I wish I could figure out some way of expressing it. Kinda like the visual beauty I sometimes have in my head, I have no way to share it. Ah, well.

Yeah. Sleep now. Perchance to dream...

_Contact_, the movie

The movie _Contact_ is the first movie I ever owned. One of these days I'll read the book.

Just re-watched it. It's a wonderful movie because it reminds me that no, I do *not* have to give up appreciation for beauty and magic just because I have a highly scientific side. They are not mutually exclusive, and never have been.

Sometimes, I forget this, and my rational, scientific side tries to convince me that the bits and pieces of reality that I have run into, but which don't yet fit into our current models of detection or scientific understanding, are therefore not real.

Having an idea as to why something beautiful happens does not make it any less magical an occurance. And it should not. Nor does not knowing/being able to explain why or how something occurs make it necessarily not true.

Belief in 'God'? Not really. Belief in something greater than myself? Yes. Although I don't think they/it (unknown gender and plurality) spend all their time watching over, taunting, and/or laughing at us. I suspect far more that they are us, or something like us, just a bit further along.

Watching the movie put some faint, elusive music into my head. I wish I could record it. Or get it enough to the forefront of my mind to grasp more than echos of it. And I wish I could figure out some way of expressing it. Kinda like the visual beauty I sometimes have in my head, I have no way to share it. Ah, well.

Yeah. Sleep now. Perchance to dream...