Sound of Silence

American physicist and author Alan Lightman tells of a childhood experience that set him on a life-long journey of hope, meaning, and new possibilities. He writes, “I was looking up at the sky one night when I was about ten years old, and I felt like my life didn’t matter. And I guess it was converting large space into large time. One star after another star after another star and wondering if that would keep going forever. I sensed that the universe existed a long time before I was born and would exist a long time after I was dead. And I was just a spec that didn’t matter. I don’t matter, my parents don’t matter, nothing matters. We’re all just specs, living in this moment. None of us were here a million years ago — none of us will be here a million years from now. And the universe doesn’t care. It just keeps going on and on and on. So, why are we…