Turtles All the Way Down

This evening all I had time for was a quick dirt ride.  Even though it was short (just under an hour), it was a lot of fun.  For one thing, I discovered that I've been running too much pressure in my cyclocross tires.  Tonight I ran them about 5 psi lower than before, and my ride was much more comfortable and enjoyable.  The best part of my ride, however, was the turtles.

Toward the end of my ride, I turned off of Goolsby Road (paved) onto Bragg Road (unpaved).  A car turned in behind me soon thereafter.  I moved as far right as a could to let the car pass, but it stayed behind me a pretty good distance.  I rode fairly fast, trying to make it less bothersome for the car, but it seemed content to hang back.  As I zoomed down Bragg Road, I saw a turtle crossing the road.

As quickly as I could, I made a U-turn and went back to move the turtle to the far side of the road.  (Always move a turtle to the side of the road toward which it's traveling.  Otherwise, it will just try to cross again.)  I waved my arms like a crazy person to get the driver's attention.  He moved to the far side of the road as I helped the turtle to the opposite side.  I waved as the car drove by.  It turned into a driveway a few tens of meters later.  It was all good.

The dirt continued as I turned left onto Jordan Road.  My less-psi tires did great on the gravelly descent just after the turn.  As I approached the swampy bottom where I often hear frogs, I saw another turtle crossing the road.  This one was even closer to the side toward which it was traveling.  It was unlikely that a car would come by before it finished crossing, but I still moved it off the road for my peace of mind,  not to mention the turtle's.

Seeing two turtles in such a short distance made me think of the term "turtles all the way down."  Trying to remember its origin, I Googled it when I got home.  I was thinking it was Native American, but it seems to be from ancient India and other Hinduist beliefs.  The concept also appears in logic and philosophy.

Wikipedia noted that Stephen Hawking refers to turtles all the way down on the first page of his book A Brief History of Time.  I read this book years ago but was not familiar with turtles all the way down back then.  It was interesting to revisit Hawking's opening paragraph:

"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.' The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?' 'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down!'"

I may not have remembered this from A Brief History of Time, but when I thought of turtles all the way down, I immediately thought of Sturgill Simpson's song by this name.  When I got home this evening, I played it in honor of my two reptilian friends from my dirt road ride.

Turtles All the Way Down

Sturgill Simpson

I've seen Jesus play with flames in a lake of fire that I was standing in
Met the devil in Seattle and spent 9 months inside the lion's den
Met Buddha yet another time and he showed me a glowing light within
But I swear that God is there every time I glare in the eyes of my best friend
Says my son it's all been done and someday your gonna wake up old and gray
So go and try to have some fun showing warmth to everyone
You meet and greet and cheat along the way

There's a gateway in our mind that leads somewhere out there beyond this plane
Where reptile aliens made of light cut you open and pull out all your pain
Tell me how you make illegal something that we all make in our brain
Some say you might go crazy but then again it might make you go sane

Every time I take a look inside inside that old and fabled book
I'm blinded and reminded of the pain caused by some old man in the sky
Marijuana, LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT
They all changed the way I see
But love's the only thing that ever saved my life

So don't waste your mind on nursery rhymes
Or fairy tales of blood and wine
It's turtles all the way down the line
So to each their own til' we go home
To other realms our souls must roam
To and through the myth that we all call space and time