Coffee & Infinity: A Taste of Wisdom

A short story about love and transcendence.

Dan arrived 15 minutes late at Sophie's meticulously scheduled fortnightly get together. She was scrolling through news articles to pass the time. The two had been trying to rekindle their fading sibling relationship through regular meetings. They had been growing further and further apart, especially as Sophie's career in philosophy took flight. As much as they irritated each other sometimes, they really did enjoy each other's company.

Dan began "Hey I'm really sorry I'm late. Traffic was atrocious and I didn't finish my article on the Celtics win until this morning. How you been?"

"You could've at least texted me that you'd be late. You know how I get with unknown waiting times." Sophie held her irritation beneath her breath. Dan conceded and offered his apologies again.

"Did you end up watching the game last Friday? Jayson Tatum did his usual magic."

Sophie rolled her eyes and said "Bro, I haven't watched an NBA game since last Christmas when you and Dad made me watch Chicago get whooped."

He had a habit of forcing his love of sports into every situation conceivable. He'd been a sports journalist for roughly 6 months now. He barely graduated with an arts degree the year before. He didn't quite receive the academic gifts of his elder sister, but he still made an effort to try and steal his parent's affection. An uncomfortable silence ensued for some moments until the waiter arrived menu in hand.

Dan ordered his usual long black and Sophie her flat white. In many ways, they were each the yin to the other's yang. Sophie's whole world was contoured by order and balance. She strived hard to utilise her time and space as efficiently as possible, often to an almost pathological degree. Dan would often slyly joke that she had ocd, but little did he know she'd been officially diagnosed two years before.

Dan on the other hand was the sort of guy to juggle three different things at once, and if not, then stubbornly fail in the attempt. His life was organised chaos. He wouldn't have it any other way. His friends were much the same.

Sophie was carefully rearranging the salt and pepper shakers on the table so they aligned symmetrically when she inquired "Have you spoken to Mom since we last met up?"

"Yeah she's soldiering on as best she can. I don't know how she does it. She looks good without any hair too."

Their mother was now terminally ill with stage 4 lymphoma. She had roughly 3 months left to live. It had been weighing heavily on both of their consciences, hence the urgency in restoring their familial bond. "I'm going to the cinemas with her next week. We're going to see a horror. You know how she loves her scary movies." Sophie said with a remorseful smile.

"That's good. Get her out and about. She needs that. Especially with Dad still working and Aunt Jennifer in New York." Dan said as he scanned his phone for work updates. "What are you working on at the moment?" He asked nonchalantly. He had always demonstrated interest in Sophie's advanced theoretical pursuits, even if he did struggle sometimes to comprehend her explanations.

"I'm working on the Hilbert's hotel thought experiment and its metaphysical implications for the cosmology of the universe." Sophie responded. Dan raised his eyebrows high, playfully asserting ignorance.

"Woah, that's intense. Can you give me the rundown in basic layman's terminology?"

Sophie poised herself, ready for the task. "Let me use a basketball analogy. You have a league with an infinite number of teams, each with 20 players. A new player arrives but all the teams are full. Well, by nature of the league's infinity, an announcer tells all the teams to move one place down in the sequence. So team 1 becomes team 2, and so on. There is now a place for our new player."

Dan looked deeply into his coffee and took a sip as this all computed in his head. "Fascinating. So it's kind of like riding an endless elevator to nowhere. What has this got to do with cosmology?"

Sophie let out a big grin. "You're asking the right questions little brother." The Hilbert's hotel thought experiment had been used by philosophers to contemplate the impossibility of an actual infinite existing in reality. Sophie explained "This thought experiment defies explanation. It's paradoxical. It couldn't happen in any concrete, observable sense. It's abstract lunacy.

She continued "if an actual infinite is impossible in reality, then that means it's purely conceptual. In other words, infinity comes from within the mind. The universe must therefore be finite and contingent."

Dan absorbed this new information as best as he could. For all he knew the cosmos was at the very least spatially infinite in extent. She had successfully tapped into his deepest curiosities. "So does this mean the universe will come to an end one day? That's kinda ominous. Hits a little close to home." Dan laughed to disguise his discomfort.

"It does mean that. But it also hints towards something else. If the universe is finite and contingent, then it must have an explanation or cause. What would we call the cause of the entire universe?"

Dan giggled again as he realised what she was implying."You aren't going to sell me the gospel here are you?"

"It doesn't point to any particular religion, but it does imply the existence of a cause, from which we can further extrapolate its divine qualities."

An important question sprang to Dan's sceptical mind "But isn't God meant to be an actual infinite?"

Sophie took one last sip out of her cooling coffee but left a small amount in the cup so as to avoid drinking drawback saliva. She then went on "pondering the cause of existence in itself is an unanswerable question. How would a finite creature be able to comprehend a being that is qualitatively infinite in essence? You simply can't. But, one must assume such a being exists lest they fall into contradiction. Something finite and contingent arising without a sufficient reason is like a flower blossoming in empty space. It doesn't make any sense at all."

Dan inquisitively added "hmm, so God is necessary for math to make sense? Wow. What a way to start my morning." He laughed and got ready to pay the bill.

The two headed out to the parking lot then got ready to say their goodbyes. "Hey, I got one more question for you. This one is relevant to your field." Dan said. "If love is usually defined in terms of desire for an external object, then what is desire for another subject?"

Sophie was pulled back by the question's insightful depth. She thought to herself for a few seconds then replied solemnly "transcendence."

"Tell Mom I love her infinitely" Dan spoke his final words then he got back into his car and drove off.

Sometimes his brilliance got lost in the woodworks but it was definitely there, and Sophie now recognised it better than ever before. Before she left, she said a small meaningful prayer for her mother and family then went along her way.