aLPHA and oMEGA
The word alphabet is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The English alphabet emerged in the 7th century, far later than the Greek one which was formed around 800 BC. The final letter of the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet is omega, hence ‘alpha’ and ‘omega’ meaning the ‘beginning’ and the ‘end’ or ‘first’ and ‘last’. Humans tend to think in terms of beginning and endings in a finite simplistic way but quantum physics tells us that neither zero nor infinity has an actual value! Some scientists say there are a finite number of atoms in an expanding universe whereas others conjecture that they are decreasing. Back to reality – this compost heap has two bins, one is a beginning and the other an ending, but then even that recycling process is a continuum. When one side is emptied, it then in turn becomes the new side once more. Life is not as simple as Lewis Carroll has it: ‘“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop”’ – Alice in Wonderland
- ‘With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts’ – Eleanor Roosevelt
