Friday, May 27, 2011

The harder they fall



There are so many things I want to write about today. I'm thinking about the B flat that's 57 octaves lower than what we know as middle C, the deepest note yet detected in the universe. This big ole honkin' B flat is part of the music of black holes, phenomena that we once thought of as massive vacuum cleaners. What we once believed is that there was only one thing black holes do: suck. Now we know that energy and matter do indeed go in to black holes, but stuff comes out, too - totally transformed by the experience I might add.

We "know." What am I saying? Should have said, our newest narrative includes a whole lot more than what we once believed. Everything, it seems, is much more complicated than we can imagine. I'm wondering if it's possible for humans to sense when one of those waves passes through the earth. I wonder if Gaia feels it. I wonder how many other things are passing around and through the earth that we sense but are unable to consciously name or articulate.

I'm thinking about the idea of ascending, about transcending, too. Thinking about how the sky dragons we call "tornados" suck air and things UP. Hail, too, is created when strong updrafts yank raindrops back into the coldest part of a storm cloud, where they freeze, then drop again. With repeated updrafts, hailstones get really big - as big as baseballs, sometimes.

The moral of the story of sky dragons and hail is that gravity always prevails in these situations. Even with black holes, what goes in will, in some way, come back out sooner or later.

There's something about this that the 5:00 a.m. Bird has been trying to explain, I think. Even the bird that died on my stairs was trying, in some way, to show me very specifically how true it is: what goes up must come down.

Don't ask me what story I'm going to weave around all this. I don't know yet but I feel a big theory forming inside my heart/mind. I love moments like this, just before the AH HA. Yeah.

Happy Friday, y'all. Shalom.

12 comments:

Reya Mellicker said...

Just as I pushed the "publish" button, the 5:00 a.m. Bird landed on my windowsill and sang for a minute or two, then flew off again.

You can not make this stuff up!

glnroz said...

57 octaves below middle C, now that is low... well my music training taught me,:"Never B(flat),,never B(sharp), always B (Natural)...You are a musical "Bird" with your "posts" ,,of sorts,,

Rebecca Clayton said...

Washington has some awesome mockingbirds. (I'm guessing that's what your guy is.) That's what they do--they announce a variety of things. In Takoma Park, there was one that regularly announced things at 2 a.m. Great birds!

There are plenty of them down in the valley, but they don't come up on Droop Mountain. We do have a lone raven stopping by each morning this spring. I wonder what that's about?

SG said...

What goes up must come down - my recent observations have been similar, though in a completely different landscape. Do you think what goes down also always comes up?

Reya Mellicker said...

Even gravity is the "weak" force, it seems to prevail in the reality I know about.

Does what go down eventually come up? What a GREAT question.

Glenn, my dear, I adore you. Thank you.

Rebecca yes surely it is a mockingbird. Surely it is. Teaching me and mocking me, all in one fell swoop

ellen abbott said...

We always 'know' until we realize that we don't know. And then we 'know' again. Why do we think we can understand it all when there are things out there we cannot see or hear?

Reya Mellicker said...

Ellen, don't ask me!

Lynne said...

Love Love Love that first photo!

Are you sure your bird is not a robin? At 5:00 a.m. that is the only bird singing at my house ... ?

Reya Mellicker said...

I trust Rebecca on these things as she is an expert. I hear robins, too, but their songs are not as complex - and even louder!

Jo said...

Beautiful photos (especially that top one), beautiful ideas, and beautiful birds.

They've been fairly ecstatic here the last few days. If you find out what that's about, do let us know!

janis said...

oh how I love your photographs Reya♥

Dan Gurney said...

Oh, I think we are shaped by that deep B flat. Oh yes, I do, but we'll never really fully understand it. A while back I realized that all questions bring forth answers and all answers melt back into melt into new questions. For me that was an AH-HA that help me feel more comfortable with NOT knowing and just nourishing questions.