Could the second law of thermodynamics be the least abstract of all scientific principles?  I am thinking of entropy, the arrow of time.  Left to itself, a system, or a human being, or a city, a whole society, a solar system will reach a state of equilibrium.  The principle was first formulated in 1824.  Heat passes from a hotter to a colder body.  To state the matter in layman’s terms, – things fall apart, become dis-organized.  There is an arc to our tenure on this earth and of all of our works.  If you have ever visited a ruin, or felt the absence by death of a friend, you know exactly what I mean.  This is the kind of knowledge that is barely expressible, that makes one shudder.

Several days ago I entered the Kane County forest preserve across Rt 31 on the east side of the Fox River.  The place is adjacent to the old Fabyan estate which is on the west side of the river.  I knew that the Fabyan’s owned a farm on the east side of the river which functioned in the early 1900s.  The odds were good that some ruins of the farm were to be found in the forest preserve.  Visiting old graveyards, touching a foundation stone of a centuries old Daimyo’s castle in Japan,  gives me a sense of the lives lived in a different time, similar to my own, with loves, fears, differing little from my own struggle for survival. 

The old bridge in the woods, spanned a dry creek bed.  The bridge was of concrete, sturdy enough to support the weight of heavy farm equipment, and the workmanship of the wooden railing suggested to my eye a method of construction from another generation.  The stairs were by the side of the bridge.  The stairway was broken, undermined and eroded by water, by expansion and contraction of temperature change with many years passage of the four seasons.  Down the ruined stairway the foundations of the bridge were a canvas for bright graffiti, which caused me to smile.  Youth and imagination is indefatigable, expressed in color and flowing forms.  Perhaps this mural of ironic expression would have made George and Nellie Fabyan smile as well.  Nothing can last forever.  There is always the “arrow of time.”

Across Rt 31 from the ruin of the old bridge in the woods was a makeshift memorial to Joshua Farwell who died here, likely by a vehicle related accident on March 22nd of this year.  Joshua was 24 years old.  The memorial says a lot about his spirit, his way of being in the world.  Above all, the memorial says that he was loved.  Joshua was a skater.  Did he contribute to the graffiti on the foundations of the old bridge?

That is “the thing” as far as I am concerned.  How do we manage to love, manage to hold another in our affection, or be held in such transcendent regard, that — it is “as if” in love, we are exempted from the arrow of time, from the inevitability of decay? We hold onto one another despite the “nothing at all” to which everything is destined.

I do not know how this miracle is pulled off, is managed with “eyes wide open” to the graveyards, the ruins, and to the roadside memorials that we pass every day.  Yet we do.

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This is the tune that will hold onto us, that we can hold onto, — to get through this day.

Making Love Out Of Nothing At All
        By Air Supply

I know just how to whisper
And I know just how to cry
I know just where to find the answers
And I know just how to lie

I know just how to fake it
And I know just how to scheme
I know just when to face the truth
And then I know just when to dream

And I know just where to touch you
And I know just what to prove
I know when to pull you closer
And I know when to let you loose

And I know the night is fading
And I know the time’s gonna fly
And I’m never gonna tell you everything I gotta tell you
But I know I gotta give it a try

And I know the roads to riches
And I know the ways to fame
I know all the rules and then I know how to break ’em
And I always know the name of the game

But I don’t know how to leave you
And I’ll never let you fall
And I don’t know how you do it
Making love out of nothing at all

(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love)
Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all

Every time I see you all the rays of the sun are all
Streaming through the waves in your hair
And every star in the sky is taking aim at your eyes
Like a spotlight

The beating of my heart is a drum and it’s lost
And it’s looking for a rhythm like you
You can take the darkness from the pit of the night
And turn it to a beacon burning endlessly bright

I’ve gotta follow it cause everything I know
Well it’s nothing till I give it to you

I can make the runner stumble
I can make the final block
And I can make every tackle at the sound of the whistle
I can make all the stadiums rock

I can make tonight forever
Or I can make it disappear by the dawn
And I can make you every promise that has ever been made
And I can make all your demons be gone

But I’m never gonna make it without you
Do you really wanna see me crawl
And I’m never gonna make it like you do
Making love out of nothing at all

(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love) Out of nothing at all
(Making love, love)

Out of nothing at all (Making love)
Out of nothing at all (Making love)
Out of nothing at all (Making love, love)

Out of nothing at all (Making love)
Out of nothing at all (Making love)
Out of nothing at all (Making love, love, love)

Composed by Jim Steinman