The Dao Of Physics
The Dao Of Meta Physics
# Ten Laws of Physics for the Traveler's Universe
01
Newton's First Law
Law of Inertia
Most people never leave. Not because they can't — because nothing pushed them. They sit in the same chair, in the same town, with the same opinions, and call it a life. Inertia is the default setting of the human soul. I know, because I sat in that chair once. Then Afghanistan happened. Then a ship sailed. Then a dog arrived. The force that acts on you doesn't have to be dramatic. Sometimes it's a one-way ticket. Sometimes it's a question you can't answer from where you're standing.
The hardest part of any circumnavigation is the first step away from the door.
02
Newton's Second Law
F = ma
The more baggage you carry — emotional, material, ideological — the harder it is to move. I watched men in Kabul carry the weight of three cultures on their backs and still show up to learn English at 0600. I've watched tourists drag four suitcases through Venice and see nothing. Mass matters. Travel light. Think light. The less you carry, the faster you respond to the world's invitations.
Force times mass equals acceleration. But wisdom says: reduce the mass first.
03
Newton's Third Law
Action vs Reaction
Every border you cross pushes back. Every culture you enter resists you, just a little, until you earn your place. Afghanistan pushed back hard. Fair Isle pushed back gently — with wind and silence. The Coral Sea pushed back with swells that rearranged your organs. But here's the thing they don't teach in physics class: the wall that pushes back is shaping you. The resistance is the education.
You don't travel through the world. You travel against it. And it makes you stronger for the friction.
04
Universal Law of Gravitation
F = G(m1m2)/R²
This is the law of belonging. The places that pull you back — Portsmouth, Fair Isle, a particular cafΓ© in Lisbon, the smell of jet fuel at Bagram — they have gravitational mass in your memory. And the people. Oh, the people. The closer you get to someone, the stronger the pull. Distance weakens it, but never kills it. I've orbited the planet eight times and I can still feel the tug of a conversation I had in a market in Marrakech fifteen years ago.
Gravity isn't just physics. It's homesickness with a formula.
05
Conservation of Energy
ΞE = 0
Nothing you've lived is wasted. The aviation English I taught in war zones became the instructional design I build for submarines. The cruise ship logistics became systems thinking. The loneliness of remote islands became the writing. Energy doesn't disappear — it migrates. Every career change, every heartbreak, every dog who taught you presence — it's all still in the system. Just converted.
You are not starting over. You are transforming what you already carry.
06
Law of Reflection
ΞΈi = ΞΈr
What you bring to a place is what it gives back. Arrive cynical in paradise, and paradise looks cynical. Arrive curious in a war zone, and even rubble teaches you something. I've watched travelers see nothing in the most extraordinary places because they arrived at the wrong angle. Skyelark taught me this better than any physics teacher — a dog meets every moment at the angle of full attention. And the world reflects that back as joy.
The mirror doesn't lie. You set the angle.
07
Coulomb's Law
F = ke(q1q2)/r²
Some people are electrically incompatible with you. That's not failure — that's Coulomb's Law. And some people, across enormous distance and improbable circumstance, pull you toward them with a force that defies geography. The charge is real. I've felt it in a briefing room in Helmand and at a dinner table in Reykjavik. Human connection isn't random — it's electrostatic. Get close enough to the right charge, and the force is undeniable.
Luck is probability taken personally. Connection is charge taken seriously.
08
Ohm's Law
V = IR
Voltage is your purpose. Current is your output. Resistance is everything between you and the life you're trying to build — bureaucracy, fear, bad habits, other people's expectations. Ohm's Law says you can increase your output two ways: raise the voltage, or lower the resistance. Most people try to work harder. The wise ones simplify the circuit. Remove the friction. Quit the committee. Cancel the subscription. Say no to the meeting.
Reduce resistance. Let the current flow.
09
Law of Radioactivity
N(t) = N0e-Ξ»t
Some things in your life are meant to decay. Jobs. Beliefs. Relationships that ran their course. And when they break down, they release energy — grief, yes, but also freedom, momentum, raw material for the next chapter. I've watched entire identities undergo radioactive decay: the soldier who becomes a teacher, the corporate exile who becomes an island poet, the cruise director who becomes a defense contractor. The breakdown isn't the tragedy. Refusing to release the energy — that's the tragedy.
Let what's unstable decay. Capture the energy it throws off.
10
The Photoelectric Effect
E = hf - Ξ¦
One photon of the right frequency can liberate an electron from a surface it's been stuck to for years. That's what travel does. That's what a good book does. That's what a dog does when she puts her head on your knee at exactly the right moment. You don't need a flood of light — you need the right frequency. One conversation in the right cafΓ©. One sentence in the right book. One sunrise from the right island.
One photon. Right frequency. Everything changes.