A few weeks ago some young adults piled into one of our vans to take the 1 ½ hour drive up the California coast to University of California, Santa Barbara, and hear a lecture about how the quantum spin of electrons can be used to convey information and help create the most powerful computers ever seen.
It wasn’t our first time there. We have traveled to UCSB to learn about string theory and how crystals simultaneously can be superfluids.
Not that we always understand every concept we hear.
But these are the lectures sponsored by the Friends of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB where many of the most important advances in theoretical physics are made today and where, as the Institute promotes, “physicists stand at the edge of discovery and change our world”.
They change OPI’s world, too.
Here physicists are willing to reach out and teach us. Accepting the fact that much of what they say will go over our heads, they are willing to give it a try, lifting us up to their airy places and then bringing us back again. The ride is absolutely thrilling. Inspirational.
A young woman with dreams of attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in L.A. values a discussion about the mystery of form versus function. Another who struggles with abuse resonates with the search for meaning.
One of our young adults born with fetal alcohol syndrome attended the lecture on crystals. Yes, she fidgeted. But new thoughts are always exciting and she talked non-stop about the lecture all the way home. The rest of us tried interrupting to talk about ideas we thought we understood but, dazzled by all those we didn’t, we rode most of the way in silence.
Then there is Jacob, our OPI mathematician extraordinaire. He followed nearly every word at a talk featuring Dr. David J. Gross, KITP Director. Jacob was so inspired that he went back and changed his college major to include a major in physics as well as math. Later, he asked us if there was a chance Dr Gross might be his mentor.
And herein lays the essence of why the Kavli Institute is so vital to us at OPI, why two organizations so disparate are so similar.
Dr. Gross, the 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics for solving the last great remaining problem of what is called “The Standard Model” of the quantum mechanical picture of reality, agreed to meet with Jacob.
Several weeks later he and Jacob spent over an hour together. Dr. Gross talked about his dreams and listened as Jacob did the same. They laughed together. Dr. Gross presented Jacob with a copy of his Stockholm speech. He told Jacob to come back any time and he meant it. Jacob said he would. He also meant it.
This is passion offered with great tolerance and understanding and without judgment, coming from a quantum world where scientists accept that the universe is more complex than we may want it to be or wish to believe, where paradox is accepted as a natural and exciting complexity of the human experience.
Here something is “not two” and “not one” but both, simultaneously, a mirror of the actual experience of life: Infinitely complex, infinitely limited, always eloquent. I love. I hate, I am so sad. I am so happy.
Here is the template for experiencing inspiration and the essence of what it means to be alive--to accept unknown possibilities without judgment or fear of inevitable mistakes, to cultivate curiosity and maintain a light and open heart.
This knowledge is the greatest antidote for depression, the greatest way to learn to handle anxiety in skillful ways, the best method for discovering personal passion.
Today, much of the intellectual potential of our youth is squandered by the distraction of anxiety caused by excessive competition and material acquisition. Focused solely on these, life becomes a never-ending struggle. Satisfaction can never be achieved and life is morbidly limited.
Balance is the key—balancing theoretical dreams with reality: Balancing the material with non-material, competition with the joy of learning ANYTHING: a martial art, how to dance, how to rebuild an engine.
Sit in a therapy group with someone who has Aspberger’s syndrome, another who has learning disabilities and depression and a third who struggles with substance abuse and you discover the power of patience balanced with tolerance and compassion.
Add the playfulness that comes when you finally and completely are accepting of yourself and others and you have the ticket for accomplishing the incredible. This is the template for producing young people who are inspired electricians or cosmetologists, cosmologists or physicists.
This attitude of open exploration and tolerance of ideas at the Kavli is, in the end, what allows young adults to feel good about themselves, grasp their own potential and become more than they ever thought they could be.
Physics, through the language of math, lets us see the beauty and magic of life. Like poetry, it speaks of a world of images, paradoxical forms and beautiful, complex emotions. So for all this and more, we will continue to attend the public lectures at the Kavli Institute, enjoying every minute even if we don’t understand everything we hear.