Yes.
I am filled with exquisite joy right now. The most beautiful thing on the black earth is not a fleet of ships, not a pint of Guinness, not Drew Barrymore.
The most beautiful thing is synthesis. From the Greek &sigmaυν - with; and θεσις, from τιθημι - to put, place, set.
The combination of ideas into a complex whole.
Synthesis is when you're at the pub with the Boy and having a few beers and you're talking about D&D, about how the Boy can organize and revitalize a waning campaign, and suddenly everything you've been reading for the past few years, everything about the brain, about thought, about usability and persuasion and marketing and the Tipping Point and the importance of storytelling and and and all comes together in one amazing conversation.
It was so beautiful that I could almost hear music. I was so smart that everybody in the room wanted to fuck me. I'm so full right now that I might cry.
I have this theory that if I read enough about the brain, about thought, about people, about any and all kinds of human knowledge, that one day I will have an epiphany and I will understand. I will have the Theory of Everything.
Tonight, it was so close.
(Though who knew it would turn out to be about D&D?)