The front page of my paper this morning, yours too I imagine, had the astonishing photo…make that first photo ever, of a black hole.
The article says of black holes, that “If too much matter is crammed into one place, the cumulative force of gravity becomes overwhelming and the place becomes an eternal trap. Here, according to Einstein’s theory matter, space and time come to an end and vanish like a dream.” It goes on to state that equations in Einstein’s theory of general relativity “indicated that when too much matter or energy was concentrated in one place space-time would collapse, trapping matter and light in perpetuity.”
Also in the paper this morning was a new science report on even faster erosion in Alaska than previously found. Word that the US Attorney General without evidence is asserting one president spied on another. Word that, with the recent lowering of emissions standards, US automakers will be facing a divided consumer base. Word of immigration hell and Brexit mayhem. All that was just the front page. To my mind it was timely therefore that the headline for the first image of a black hole read “Peering in Light’s Graveyard”.
The dividing and virtual lens through which we view the world is mind bending. Sophisticated feeds of false information, fantastic conspiracy theories made to look real and false virtual identities abound. I heard three extraordinary journalists speak recently about how Facebook is quantifiably the documented conduit of misinformation through which unsavory leaders and referendums have risen to power. Duterte in the Philippines for one. Astonishingly, Brexit another.
The image of the black hole on the front page is ringed by what’s termed an event horizon…a blazing circle of fiery gases warning of the abyss. Feels to me sometimes that our own event horizon is within sight. There are days after reading the news I want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. There are nights I wake up with worry about our world and just hang on. Count me, in other words, amongst the throngs of concerned citizens.
I’ve lived long enough to see love dissolve hate. Long enough to experience that evil can be eradicated when love pulls its up by its roots. Long enough to know that rational thought can lead out of any mental jungle if we, as the 23rd Psalm encourages us to do, keep walking. So, to the best of our ability may we heed the event horizon’s warning and each have the courage to hold to that beautiful, bright light…to the true and loving and rational. I really don’t know how else we avoid getting sucked into the vortex.
Perhaps this near deep dive into the dark is the process of un-rooting it. If so, bring it on.
Blue Pearl
Blue Pearl 