“The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.” -- Franz Kafka
I no longer remember the book I was reading, long ago, for which that was the introductory quote. But my reading of it pretty well coincided with a beachfront family get-together. And there was a book belonging to the condo I was staying at; it was one of those “Idiot’s Guide…”, or “(Subject)… for Dummies”.
The subject, in this case: Quantum Physics. I thought “hey — if someone goes to the trouble of writing a book, and addressing it directly to you…”.
Years later, I came across the following quote, in Dr. Chuck Missler’s matchless teachings on “Beyond Time and Space (…Physics, Coincidence, Newton)” in his mind-bending “Beyond” series:
(Dr. Richard Feynman, speaking of quantum physics):
“I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics... in fact, it is often stated of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is unquestionably correct.”
In the simplified, layman’s presentation of the book I read, I was introduced to:
— Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
— the location of a photon being dependent on the observer’s position in the universe
— the idea that atomic and sub-atomic particles cannot be observed without altering their behavior
— the concept that photons — that is, light — are both a particle and wave. At the same time.
The substance of the Kafka quote resonated and linked with the concept that at the fundamental core of our reality exists a duality that, if not self-contradictory, is certainly profoundly ambiguous.
Shaking the french fries of data recounted above, in the greasy paper bag of my mind, produced the song you have before you: “The Same Time”.
Written during a period of my life in which I indulged a callow philosophical proclivity, and engaged in a somewhat careless bohemian lifestyle, the song seems to express a casual relativist nihilism that has become increasingly standard-issue in the post-modern milieu. And can perhaps be captured succinctly in the words of Jack Crabb, the hero of the classic “Little Big Man”: “maybe we’re all fools, and none of it matters.”
I introduced the tune to my bandmates at the time: David Goldberg on drums; and my ex-bassist and wife of over thirty years, Trena. Later, my old friend Bill Barton joined in, and added his trenchant guitar line. There exists a lo-fi recording of the song recorded on Russ Fitzgerald’s (The Deadbeats) Fostex cassette four-track. Mine is an impression, via emulation, of Trena’s and Bill’s work. Alas, I lack the capacity to do the same with David’s sprightly drumming. Though I’m not unhappy with Garageband’s “Kyle”, at 137 bpm.
I’ve been threatening to rework the song since that 1980s 4-track version. It was pencilled in to be included in the second batch of demos recorded at Mark Storey’s studio — the first group of four being selected as the beta test. But there was no second batch. The band — which had performed under a series of names, with and without Bill — The Alkleins, The Scanners, Waydown in Trenadad; and which I determined to call The Whales, going forward — evaporated before it materialized.
It became something of a bucket list item, especially since Trena and I began performing and recording as The DOVES.
And here it is. I still enjoy playing it. And hope you’ll enjoy listening to it.
I will say here that the ambiguity expressed in the lyrics by the youthful me:
is light a particle or wave? Is this woman the right one for me? Is man just a collection of matter, or something more? Is he in the image of God, or just some evolutionarily advanced savage brute?
— has been replaced in my maturity by a sense of the deep mystery addressed by those questions. Which are often satisfactorily addressed by simply incorporating “and”.
We may be “deranged apes”. AND bear the mark of our Creator.
We are simultaneously matter, flesh: AND much more — mind, soul, spirit.
The woman? She WAS the right one (Trena). My “Beatrice”. Though it was only through a process of puerile mistakes on my part that I was delivered to that blessed and enlightened conclusion.
And light, say the particle physicists, is particle AND wave. At the same time.
The realization that the genitive constituent of our reality — in the beginning, God said “Let light BE” — is so defined: is something I that can’t, and don’t want to, get over.