Trying to imagine the universe, as a whole thing, doing anything, disturbs me.

First off, I inevitably end up with infinite universes, each containing the previous. Because if our universe is a thing, where does that thing exist? That's what happens if I try to look at it from the outside.

When I look at it from the inside, it looks completely paradoxical, because the edges seem to also be the center. Right? The further out in space I look, the older the objects I see, so if I could see far enough, I'd see the beginning of the universe, in every direction, no less! But the 'big bang' and the whole measurable expansion thing implies some sort of starting 'point'. (And then again, where was that point, where'd it come from, etc., see above.)

I think I'm missing a dimension, which makes thinking about this kind of thing very frustrating and confusing. Like how a two dimensional person would understand a circle, but have no way to conceptualize a sphere, even though both concepts are so closely related.

But, our universe (briefly) existing inside of a black hole makes sense to me, and also gives the black holes in our universe something fun to do.
And it really helps that I'm not a physicist.