It’s Valentine’s Day, time for my traditional physics poem. I’m trying a new format this year, let me know what you think!

Cherish the Effective

Self-styled wise men waste away, pining for the Ultimate Theory.
I tell you now: spurn their fate.
Scorn the Ultimate.
Cherish the Effective.
 
When you dream of an Ultimate Theory, what do you see?
An answer to your every question?
Every worry,
Every weakness,
Resolved?
A thing of beauty?
A thing of
       your notion
              and only your notion
of beauty?
 
Nature, she has her own worries.
Science, she never stops asking.
Your fairytale ending?
You won’t get it.
And you’ll hurt, and be hurt, in the trying.
 
You need a theory that isn’t an ending.
A theory you
              only
                   start
                          understanding
But can always discover.
No rigid, final truth,
But gentle corrections.
And as you push
                The scale
                           The energy
Your theory always has room for something new.
 
A theory like that, we call Effective.
A theory you can live
                      your
                           life
                                with.
It’s worth more than you think.