(no subject)
It is August in Fla and that means the weather has turned itself inside out to be miserable. This is the height of summer for us with all the nasty humidity and heat Mother Nature can dish out. She is perspiring on us as I write. Now we run from air conditioned houses to air conditioned cars to air conditioned work places or store. Now, even the evenings hold no relief for us. In July at least light breezes showed up at sunset and gave us a hint of what it had been like last spring. Now, all we have is miserable with a capital misery.
I did make an effort a few nights ago to stand outside and search for falling stars. Oh yes, the Perseid meteor shower was raging the past few days. Some might even fall to Earth tonight but not in the same volume that happened earlier. Each year I try to catch the show hoping to be over-powered with the falling debris of the universe. Leftover pieces of planetary stuff that never made it into the big time, I suppose you could explain it. Sad in a way, if you think about it. So these rocks have been rolling about the universe for bazillions of years and never make themselves link up with other like rocks to form a planet. The least they could have done is become a planetoid or a comet. Such a disappointment they must be to the creator of the Big Bang. All that effort to create a universe and what do you little rocks do but run the streets with your hoodlum friends. After all this roaming around, they make the final bad choice after a series of bad choices and hurl into the Earth. They become nothing more than a fiery streak across the sky and a show for old women who are lying in the lounge chair in their dark backyards. And heck, they don’t even dress up for the last moment of the rock’s long yet final journey. They are out there in their nightgowns. No respect.
A pessimist would look at it that way.
On the other hand you could view the little rock’s choice at free agency as an adventure few of us will ever have. By deciding an orbit around a proper star was not the right thing to do, the rock’s journey has taken it places we can only imagine. Past stars that orbit each other in wild dances. Through gases of nebula that span billions of light years. Pulsars and black holes may entice them to come near, but the little rocks continues their trek. Past the moons of Jupiter, through the rings of Saturn. Perhaps they even spend some quality time with the demoted planet of Pluto.
It is fitting that at the end of this eons long journey that the little rocks do come to Earth. It is there the little rocks become part of the meteor shower we humans scan the sky for each August. We endure the heat and the humidity to do so, honoring the last moments of the life of these little rocks. And for that effort, these rocks sprinkle us with wonder and awe. If there is any luck for the little rock, a tiny bit may survive all the heat that our atmosphere inflicts upon it. It is then the real gift of the little rock’s sacrifice is realized as we are allowed to hold in our hands what the universe is. Oh not just the little piece of rock, but the endlessness of it all.
I suppose an optimist would see the situation that way. Maybe only a dreamer might. Certainly one old lady in her nightgown did.
I did make an effort a few nights ago to stand outside and search for falling stars. Oh yes, the Perseid meteor shower was raging the past few days. Some might even fall to Earth tonight but not in the same volume that happened earlier. Each year I try to catch the show hoping to be over-powered with the falling debris of the universe. Leftover pieces of planetary stuff that never made it into the big time, I suppose you could explain it. Sad in a way, if you think about it. So these rocks have been rolling about the universe for bazillions of years and never make themselves link up with other like rocks to form a planet. The least they could have done is become a planetoid or a comet. Such a disappointment they must be to the creator of the Big Bang. All that effort to create a universe and what do you little rocks do but run the streets with your hoodlum friends. After all this roaming around, they make the final bad choice after a series of bad choices and hurl into the Earth. They become nothing more than a fiery streak across the sky and a show for old women who are lying in the lounge chair in their dark backyards. And heck, they don’t even dress up for the last moment of the rock’s long yet final journey. They are out there in their nightgowns. No respect.
A pessimist would look at it that way.
On the other hand you could view the little rock’s choice at free agency as an adventure few of us will ever have. By deciding an orbit around a proper star was not the right thing to do, the rock’s journey has taken it places we can only imagine. Past stars that orbit each other in wild dances. Through gases of nebula that span billions of light years. Pulsars and black holes may entice them to come near, but the little rocks continues their trek. Past the moons of Jupiter, through the rings of Saturn. Perhaps they even spend some quality time with the demoted planet of Pluto.
It is fitting that at the end of this eons long journey that the little rocks do come to Earth. It is there the little rocks become part of the meteor shower we humans scan the sky for each August. We endure the heat and the humidity to do so, honoring the last moments of the life of these little rocks. And for that effort, these rocks sprinkle us with wonder and awe. If there is any luck for the little rock, a tiny bit may survive all the heat that our atmosphere inflicts upon it. It is then the real gift of the little rock’s sacrifice is realized as we are allowed to hold in our hands what the universe is. Oh not just the little piece of rock, but the endlessness of it all.
I suppose an optimist would see the situation that way. Maybe only a dreamer might. Certainly one old lady in her nightgown did.