Well, it was a bit of a bummer for thousands of people in San Diego who were prepared to watch July 4 fireworks over Glorietta Bay. Instead of seeing a distinct stream of fireworks for 20 minutes, there was a 15 second big bang of blur. Apparently, a computer glitch is the reason the 2012 fireworks went off all at once.

Of course, spectators were rather disappointed. Instant gratification is not all it’s cracked up to be.

It reminded me of the Big Bang theory.

Oddly enough, around the world, in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 4, scientists were smashing sub-atomic particles together at enormous energy levels and finally made the claim to have detected what has been dubbed the “God particle,” formally known as the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is believed to have originated during the Big Bang, thus helping to shape the subatomic particles that make up all matter in the universe.

Okay, I’ve never been a proponent of the Big Bang theory, mainly because physicists keep making new discoveries that undermine their theories about how the universe works. It’s kind of funny when you think about it and thankfully I’ve met physical scientists who will admit their truth today is probably going to change tomorrow.

I’ve also met religionists who have stopped arguing the unscientific truth that God created a material world in 7 days, rampant with beginnings and ends to everything from happiness to health.

It is unnecessary to flop between the material and the abstract. There is another alternative. After contemplating this statement from Science and Health, first written by Mary Baker Eddy, “The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only—that is, the eternal truth and unity of God and spiritual being, including the universe,” my approach to life has shifted.

Instead of trying to figure out beginnings and ends, my goal is to understand, or interpret, the infinite, the only. When I focus on infinite Love, I feel a reduction of the hate/love cycle. When I become more familiar with infinite Spirit and its resources of spiritual goodness, I become less bedazzled or disappointed with material things. When I realize infinite Mind, people and things around me exhibit more intelligence. When I feel infinite Soul, the past and the future don’t dictate my decisions as much as the now.

The infinite, the only. It’s interesting.