Eric, actually it isn't clear that there has to be a before. Before and after are, quite possibly, concepts dependent on the existence of a universe. This does not lend itself to human scale analogies, but then neither does most modern cosmology/physics. A claim that there has to be a before the universe treats the universe like a normal every day object, when we know that even normal every day objects are really statistical constructs of things that don't behave in normal every day object scale manners. (I am not actually claiming that there is no matrix in which the universe is embedded, only that the a priori claim that there must be one is based on reasoning from experience that has been shown not to scale endlessly larger or smaller.)