ON SUNNIE D. KIDD㷧 CONCEPT OF INBETWEENNESS: SPIRITUALITY; PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSICS
Those of us who ascribe to a "process" type of theology would propose that in the beginning, there was an "Infinite Energy and Boundless Potentiality", a God-Spirit, that could not be contained. That "singularity" erupted in a quest to be in relationship, and in that moment, the waves, light, time, and space emerged, and the universe was born. The heat was so intense and the collisions so violent, that most of the particles were annihilated in a split second...cooling the universe and reducing its matter to one billionth of the original matter. Yet Boundless Energy, Boundless Wholeness, the energy of inbetweenness, as Sunnie called it, endured and continued to be transformed, and new life emerged.
This inbetweenness united protons and neutrons in enduring relationships, forming atomic nuclei. Over and over, the energy of relationship - the energy of inbetweenness - gave birth and the galaxies were born. And the life, death, and resurrection cycle continued...gravitational attraction sucked in all the clouds of helium and hydrogen - a black hole. But in that darkness, the energy of inbetweenness could not be contained, and self-imploding centers gave birth to the brilliant light of the first stars, and light and darkness became one. These photons of light, both wave and particle, refused to submit to a single nature. Still, Infinite Energy abounded and the universe continued the creation story, each more sophisticated and complex than its predecessor. Even now, energy continues to yield to matter, and matter dies and yields to energy, and new, more complex life evolves in a cycle of differentiation, renewal, and communion.
We would submit that all life forces are interdependent and interrelated; cooperation and co-creation (the energy that Sunnie called inbetweenness) are their energetic forces. Fields continue the process of creation, contributing to new forms of behavior, forming a kind of collective memory. In a very real way, each part contains the Whole, and the Whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We humans, mere infants in the evolutionary cycle, contain the whole of creation that begot us. But with humankind, a consciousness was born that gives birth not only to awareness, but also to an active choice to enter into relationship. By our birthright, we are in relationship with one another and with all of creation.
The story of the universe opens our minds to look for the God-Spirit within, the Spirit who continues to reveal Infinite Energy through each of us and from within the cosmos, calling us and all creation to live in "Inbetweenness" by unleashing the Potential that is waiting to be released as creation evolves in our day. The challenge before us is a quantum leap - to live in right relationship with each other and with all of creation - to reverence the energy of Inbetweenness that continues to beat, as we take our rightful place as co-creators of the universe of the future.
