Infinity

It is said that certain things are infinite – one example being the amount of time or the level of detail you could attain as you zoom in or out of space (or maybe this is four examples).

If you’ve never tried this kind of zooming then, just for fun, accompany me through the following exercise in creative writing (okay, I just added that part on because I can’t think how else this could be anything to do with writing).

Sit somewhere comfortable and safe and then look at your finger from where your eyes are situated right now, let’s say about 18 inches away. Then, in your mind, imagine moving your point of view backwards and upwards until you are in the corner of your room looking at the back of your head and the whole of your body sitting there with your finger outstretched. Okay, put your finger down and ‘pull back’ again until you imagine that you are hovering above your house. Then, just like Google Maps, pull back further until you are about 100 feet above your street. Then back again, as smoothly as you can, upwards until you are about a mile away from your home town. Then back again until you can see the outlines of your country. Then move up into space (don’t worry about breathing – you are just imagining this) until you can see the whole of planet Earth. Pull back again until you see the sun, planets and asteroids laid out before you. Move back again until the whole solar system is just a dot of light in the company of many other dots of light. You can pick up speed now. Go back further until individual galaxies, including our own Milky Way are teeny tiny points of light. Keep moving back and back, faster and faster. What you are seeing now is a product of pure imagination – no-one has seen or can know what is out there. Keep pulling back. Double, triple, quadruple your speed. Back, back, back , faster, faster, faster until you get dizzy with the speed and distance your imagination is travelling.

Sooner, rather than later, you will get bored with this exercise (well, I did), but if you were to carry on doing this to the end of your life and then beyond your life for millions and billions and trillions of years getting faster and further back, then you would still not have reached infinity. You might get a terrific buzz out of it all though (I did) and, if you are so inclined, you might at some point wonder if God could reach infinity by doing this exercise (or maybe that’s just me again).

Oh – sorry – you can come back now. Before you go off and make yourself a nice cup of tea tell me – how was it for you?