Bloom's Day is upon us (16 June). As that is the day when we celebrate James Joyce, and as he popularised the use of the word epiphany, I thought it was time to roll out another Celebration Menu: The Epiphany Celebration Menu. Our use of the word goes a little further than JJ's. For at least two decades Quantum theory has been understood well enough at the populer level (What the Bleep do we know?)to make the connection between the manifestation of who any one person is, as JJ uses the word, and that person - indeed, every person - being a unique manifestation of the universe. Mmmmmmmmm? OK. A common way of illustrating this point is to refer to a hologram, which is a three dimensional picture of, say, a person. Break that hologram into pieces, and each fragment,no matter how small, has the whole picture within it. Each of us is not just an artifact produced by the universe. Each of us Is the universe. The universe contains galaxies and stars. Hence the rollicking celebration of constellations and physicists. And all of this happened over the Christmas season of 1990. If you're confused, wait until you read what follows the menu itself. I think you'll be amused by the definitions given at the end, but. Eh? Oh, and Bloom's Day? Bring your copy of Ulysses.
Somewhere Nice BYO
Reservations 724765
ALCHEMIST’S GOLD
Puree of pumpkin stirred into traditional Damper ingredients; then rendered to golden baked Pumpkin Damper; served piping hot from the furnace, with wisps of chilled butter.
STARTERS
PRIMORDIAL SOUP
Recreated daily by combining the finest produce grown of earth, fire, water and air; and applying a clever technique of time reversal. Ask for today’s singular flavour.
Reservations 724765
ALCHEMIST’S GOLD
Puree of pumpkin stirred into traditional Damper ingredients; then rendered to golden baked Pumpkin Damper; served piping hot from the furnace, with wisps of chilled butter.
STARTERS
PRIMORDIAL SOUP
Recreated daily by combining the finest produce grown of earth, fire, water and air; and applying a clever technique of time reversal. Ask for today’s singular flavour.
COPERNICUS’ CAROUSEL OF RAVIOLI
Home made ravioli of spinach and Milla Milla Matured Cheese; served in a light herbed sauce.
GALLILEO’S TIDAL PATE
This all time favourite keeps coming back. It is made with chicken livers and brandy and served with freshly made damper.
NEWTON’S MOUSSE OF LEVITY
Mousse of ripened avocado, filled with our own seafood sauce; served with local king prawns
MAXWELL’S WAVED CROQUETTE
Lambs brains and pink peppercorn croquette, crumbed in almonds; then fried
PLANCK’S QUANTUM OF CALAMARI
Pan fried in garlic sauce; topped with cheese; then grilled
EINSTEIN’S VERY FAST QUAIL
Whole breast of quail marinated in red wine, bacon and onion; oven baked, and served with fresh mini salad
MAINS
RACK OF LAMB LIBRA
Rack of lamb baked in a herb crust, and complimented with our Dijon sauce. The sublime balance of earth, fire, water and air.
FILLET OF TURKEY COLUMBA
Turkey fillet pan baked and topped with an avocado fan and hollandaise sauce. An ancient people’s gift of peace.
BREAST OF CHICKEN BERNICE
Chicken breast stuffed with oysters, wrapped in bacon; then pan fried and served with a lemon pepper sauce. Bernice dreamed thus as she combed her hair.
MEDALIONS OF PORK LURA
Pork medallion pan fried in a pink peppercorn and oyster mushroom sauce. Perseus listened and sought his destiny.
SHORT CRUST OF SEAFOOD CASSIOPEIA
Scallops, prawns, bugs, and fish in a white wine and herb sauce; surrounded with a short crust pastry; then baked. Cassiopeia’s gift to Perseus for rescuing Andromeda.
Scallops, prawns, bugs, and fish in a white wine and herb sauce; surrounded with a short crust pastry; then baked. Cassiopeia’s gift to Perseus for rescuing Andromeda.
FILLETS OF WHITING ANDROMEDA
Whiting fillets lightly grilled and topped with our own anchovy butter. Andromeda’s meal of thanksgiving.
Whiting fillets lightly grilled and topped with our own anchovy butter. Andromeda’s meal of thanksgiving.
FILLET OF BEEF DIANA
For those who like traditional steak Dianne; cooked to your liking. Where there is passion for the hunt.
GOLD OF THE PLEIADES
Mini steamed pumpkin filled with a combination of vegetables and nuts; then baked. For the flight from the hunter.
The Epiphany Celebration Menu
No matter how old we become there remains in each of us a Child aching to be noticed; waiting to show others who s/he is becoming. What a fabulous surprise awaits each of us.
We know that when we eat, drink and breathe, we recycle the land, the sea and the sky, and become the Earth’s means of knowing and enjoying its own being and beauty. With just a little bit of effort we can realise that this function extends to the Whole Universe.
Breath taking as that thought maybe is small change compared with what we can now say about ourselves thanks to Quantum Theory. We are not just feeling and thinking fragments of the Universe. We are the Universe.
Each of us exists in a body that does not stop at the outside of our skin. It includes the soil, water and air of the Earth and everything that lives there. It also extends through our Solar System to our galaxy and everything beyond it – further than radio telescopes have yet seen.
Our identity resides in the whole of what exists. It assumes its individual uniqueness inside our skin. Each of us is a unique personal name of the Universe: each of us an Epiphany of the whole.
Fortunately, you don’t have to understand Quantum Theory to experience what it clarifies – any more than it is necessary to understand electricity to enjoy a good movie. All you have to do is allow yourself to gasp at the pleasure of the sight, sound, taste, smell and feel of other things in your surroundings. That is how the Child in you is set free. Then s/he is able, as only children are, to play with the most fabulous toys imaginable – everything from galaxies to quarks. Then s/he is able to penetrate the frontiers of time and space at the speed of thought, exploring who s/he is becoming. Then she is able to share the wonder of it all with someone else.
This sharing is a re-discovery of Santa Claus – except that it is the Child in you who is at the same time the real Santa Claus, enticing others into wonder, inviting them to make the Quantum Leap into mystery.
There is nothing quite like the magic of smell and taste in good food to trigger the smile that sets the Child in you free. Perhaps s/he will go in search of the Santa Claus whose gift enables us to know more about our world and whose name it gives to the starter you select. Perhaps s/he will prompt you to choose the main course named after the constellation that s/he would like to visit. Perhaps s/he will simply smile across the table and welcome a smile in return. To become the Child is to celebrate the self-disclosing Universe: to be its Epiphany.
EPIPHANY: the manifestation of being.
QUANTUM THEORY: the universe is One Indivisible Whole, manifesting itself as an infinite number of particles, each of which is the Whole, functioning in a relationship with all others that generates the unique identity of each.
GALAXIES: the largest objects in the universe, thousands of billions in number, each containing hundreds of millions of stars.
QUARK: the smallest objects in the universe, existing at the frontier between matter and energy, exhibiting the characteristics of both.
QUANTUM LEAP: the action of what is potential substantiating itself in space-time (conversely the act of shedding space-time without dematerialising).
COPERNICUS: built the first merry-go-round for his seven children. One day when no one was looking he went for a ride on it. That’s when it first occurred to him that maybe the Earth orbits the Sun rather than the other way about.
GALLILEO: looked through his telescope one night and saw the Moon dragging the tide in – though he couldn’t work out how. Thereafter he looked at the world whenever he wanted to know what it was like, rather than speculate with learned scholars about it. He thus gave us modern science.
NEWTON: was accused by a colleague of stealing his work. “Do you realise the gravity of this charge?” thundered the Judge. That’s when the penny dropped – or was it the apple? In any case he solved the puzzle of the relationship between the moon and the tide.
MAXWELL: was the father of identical twins, Electra and Magnus. He couldn’t tell them apart until one day when he was leaving for work he noticed that they waved in opposite directions. That’s how he discovered the Electro-Magnetic Wave.
PLANCK: explained his ruined shirt to his mother by saying that he left the iron on the stove longer so that he could finish the job in one go. “Can you pour twenty litres of water into a two litre bucket without making mess with eighteen of them?” she scolded. Planck later told his colleagues that a particle can contain only a discrete quantum of energy. He was happy to find that what was obvious to his mother was as big a surprise to them as it had been to him.
EINSTEIN: came from a very large family. As a child he discovered that at family gatherings he had to move very quickly from one relative to another to see them all. The memories they shared took him back in time. Later he discovered that moving at the speed of light also took him back in time. He called this Special Relativity after his favourite family members.
