So we should say what, ‘Earth attracted the rock’? I asked.The rock and Earth together create the attraction, yes.Attraction is the universe acting.Acting?Yes.The universe itself is the source of this attraction, he said.The universe is like a person?No. With some irritation, he shook his head.What I’m saying is not complex.Bring to mind all that the universe has assembled.That activity on the part of atoms and stars and galaxies didn’t just happen.It was brought about.That’s what you mean by primary?The attraction just is, it’s not something we can explain?It can be explained, Thomas said.Then what is the explanation for why a rock falls? I asked.I have to admit feeling ridiculous asking you this question after working six years to earn a doctoral degree in gravitation.Thomas chuckled softly.He pulled the top of the creamer and poured it into his cup of coffee.Bear in mind that science and cosmology are related though distinct investigations of the universe.Science for the most part focuses on explaining how things happen.Einstein’s general theory of relativity is a profound explanation of gravity in that it provides an understanding of how things move in the macrocosm.It gives the precise mathematical form, the geometry, which determines the motion.But you are interested in answering the question, ‘Why?’ That is the approach taken in cosmology.The why of things relates to their development, relates to the future toward which they are developing.Yes, I said.That is my question.Why does gravity pull the rock to the ground?To create galaxies and stars.Gravity exists to carry out the universe’s aim of constructing communities of every sort.This amounts to a cosmological theory of gravity, one that complements the scientific theory.It is universal in that it pertains to everything, whether we are speaking of the attraction between Earth and the Sun or between two humans.Wow, I said.You’re saying this theory explains even our experience of love?Thomas smiled.You have it backward, he said.Theories do not explain our experience.It’s the other way around.Our experience explains our theories.Wait, I said.What do you mean by that?What can you possibly mean when you say our experience explains our theories?It’s nothing esoteric.It’s simply noting that our experience of wonder leads to our theories.His theory of natural selection is one of the most profound insights into the nature of life in the entire history of humanity.But like all theories, it is a partial truth.It could not account for all of our experience of life.For instance, it had to be extended into the realm of genetics following the investigations of Gregor Mendel and so on throughout the twentieth century.That is to say, no theory gives a full accounting of our experience of life.On the other hand, our experience as living beings explains the existence of all our theories.Einstein’s fascination with light and matter led to a lifetime of investigation, which eventuated in his special and general theories of relativity.It’s a simple point I’m making.Experience of beauty comes first.Things had fallen into place.Bits and pieces of my life came rushing to mind, such as my argument with Shel in the Boeing Amphitheater when I raved over experiencing the elegance of the early universe.Shel had reified the equations.Both of us had fused the equations with reality so that they became, for us, gravity itself.But as the light broke in, I understood the error.Equally stunning, the same gravitational force that was operating then suffuses us now.The force of attraction that built the galaxies was right here.I had only to release my pencil from one hand to the other in order to feel it.Experiencing the thud of the pencil as it hit my palm was to experience the primal attraction that had built the actual architecture of the actual universe.That power was right there when I opened my fingers and allowed it to take the pencil away.That’s what I was experiencing, the living universe in the act of attraction.I blurted out my question.Aren’t you saying gravity and romantic attraction are the same thing?That gravity is a form of love?He winced.Our difficulty, as I’ve mentioned, is the impoverished form of many modern languages.Our mechanical worldview sequesters all power words like intelligence, wisdom, and love inside the human frame of reference.With our imaginations frozen in this way, it is difficult for us to see the cosmological origins of attraction.This whole line of thought might be a direction for you in the future.In what way?’ I asked.By helping us experience ourselves as modes of the universe.That is what the new story of cosmogenesis offers.This need for a deeper understanding of ourselves has been noted by some of the finest minds in the history of philosophy.Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century praised scientific knowledge in the highest terms, but at the same time was keenly aware that even with the very best science, humanity will remain in need of a poetic vision of the whole.‘For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first.’ That’s what’s needed.A poetic vision showing us how to begin with the whole of things. He looked me in the eye.Without doubt, a certain amount of rejection and even ridicule will accompany you as you endeavor to tell this story.No one should make the mistake of thinking cosmology is for the faint of heart.My own heart was pounding.He had more to say, but I had lost my breath.The crucial fact of primordial attraction, primordial intelligence.With a simple aim, to move closer.None of that was known when we roared off that night.Like rocks falling to the sandy soil, like ignorant stars circling the Milky Way.To remember those events as nodes of the universe would change the past.