You can try to name it with an austere smile or sprinkle it over the garden; count the universe in years, a galaxy in stars, a recognized species in projected numbers to a beginning or end; you can wave self-proclaimed insights with the strength of an eye pressed hot against an iron will, claiming the inconstant sun like a trophy in a body’s feeble attempt to make itself into a direction. But then comes this spinning and the compass will not hold, and all the fragile parts of a theory of everything collapse into the gap between the last exhalation and the next breath.
I’ve been watching NOVA Universe Revealed: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/nova-universe-revealed/. I think you’d find it interesting. We’ve learned so much in only the last few years. Space is such an interesting metaphor for humankind. We swim through out lives thinking that we are only influenced by what we see, and yet we are are surrounded and influenced at all times by unseen gravity.
Thanks for sharing this link, Jef! I haven’t seen it and am looking forward to. Love this: “We swim through out lives thinking that we are only influenced by what we see, and yet we are are surrounded and influenced at all times by unseen gravity.”