Unhindered by much knowledge, he had twittered
about Big History, his newest find.
One “tweet” – 140 characters or fewer –
sufficed to write out everything he knew.

He knew that he was hooked. Why hadn’t he heard
before about Big History, he whined.
Big History! Here we become the viewer
with all our research tools of all that’s new

and all that ever was new since Big Bang
rang in the universe. This topic mined
long time frames in attempts to see and skewer
the common themes and patterns. He was blue

and blown out of the water. Lots to learn!
The sun comes up, and fly-by birds remind
him life is good, and learning what is truer
is the happiest path one ever can pursue.

It is salutary and humbling to be so frequently reminded of my ignorance, which appears limitless. This morning I came across a SFGate article reporting that an international team of scientists says that UC Berkeley geologist Walter Alvarez was right thirty years ago with his revolutionary answer on what killed off the dinosaurs. But what got to me was what Alvarez said he is doing now: “…but I’ve moved away from my love of geology these days, and I’m interested in what we call Big History now – the entire history of the cosmos, Earth, life and humanity. What a wonderful class to teach!”