Today I was at lunch with a physicist I know.

His eyes lit with a golden glow,

his cheeks flushed as he said with relish,

“We don’t know what dark matter is,

but dark matter is everywhere, and is responsible

for all of us being here.”

He was proud to educate me, to be part of

something so new, so vast and grand.

 

Experiencing his words and the emotion

behind them took me back to another

place 40 years before, where I was the one

with the shining eyes. I sat rapt

in a meditation led by a guru I had never seen before

and knew nothing about. He said earnestly,

“Everything comes from love.

Love is in all things and gives form to creation.”

His whole being seemed to glow, and I felt

understanding grow in me..

 

Hello, Where did you go? the physicist asked.

I told him my memory, and then realized

I had just solved one of the great mysteries of physics.

“The answer is Love = dark matter!” I said. They are both everywhere,

all pervading, the entire ocean in a drop

as small as one cell.

 

His face was blank.

“Look at her,” he thought, “thinking she understands physics

in an instant, when I’ve studied it for decades

and am only now learning one of the great problems!

She is so naïve. Love can’t be the same as

dark matter just because some guru sitting on a pillow

says it is! How ridiculous! I can’t possibly stay around

someone who is so easily led, and clearly wrong.”

 

I watched his struggle, thinking, He will not be able

to let this go, and he is about to blame me.

 

He waited a few more polite minutes, then stood

and excused himself. It was clear there was no future

here, so we parted ways, not relishing a fight,

each of us knowing we are right.