photo credit: NASA
Driving north from San Jose tonight, after a fascinating two-day visit to Santa Clara University, where the quality of ideas seem to be much more valued than the sound of money, (which I've heard, breathed, swallowed and choked on in neighboring Silicon Valley), those of us commuting northward were treated to a rare visual treat.
Courtesy of NPR, I know that tonight's eastern sky held the third of three lunar eclipses in this past year, and that this also was the last one until late 2010, almost three years from now.
Our Bay Area skies were cloudy, so I expected no chance to view this relatively rare event.
But as I crested I-280's last rise and merged eastward onto the 380 connector to Highway 101, there it was! A soft smudge in the eastern sky, nothing like a normal view.
In fact, as this odd image hovered over the broad, well-lighted expanse of SFO, I couldn't help but wonder whether those who say they have sighted UFOs, and those who claim to have witnessed guiding lights from the heavens, throughout human history, may not simply have been in the right place at the right astronomical time?
If so, that does not diminish their experience, in my view, but perhaps confirms it. Being there, witnessing that, validates our smallness, as humans, before the awful glory of forces so much grander than ourselves, that none of our conventional tools can explain.
Do you believe in magic? Do you believe in God? Can you reconcile the relentless logical beauty of science with the ambiguity of faith in a source not palpable, not reachable, not attainable in our status as mere wretched humans?
If you cannot, and you also saw tonight's magnificent heavenly display, it just may be a time to reconsider your beliefs. If so, you are as one with me. To glimpse the awful beauty of something much greater than ourselves raises a conundrum for intellectuals. It's a place we do not willingly go.
In future months, at this space, I will be traveling these spiritual paths, and I hope, dear reader, you are willing to stick around for the ride!
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1 comment:
David,
That was an extraordinary sight from northwestern Ohio, too. As it happens, our sky was perfectly clear last night... enhancing the effect. Living in the country, away from city lights, allows one to see these events in a crystal clear atmosphere sometimes (though it doesn't necessarily give any more clarity to the mind of the limited human observer).
Great idea to explore “spiritual paths”. I'll be reading your reflections with interest.
You may recall that our family had a pet squirrel monkey named “Tommy” for about 3 years in the late 50s. Well, of the many entertaining characteristics that little guy displayed was an utter inability to grasp the concept of clear glass. If we held one of his favorite treats on one side of a glass door, he would sit for the longest time attempting to reach “through” the glass from the other side. It worked every time. Our inability to grasp some of which seems to exist has always teased the human spirit in this way. As Stephan Hawking has described “the very large and the very small” confound us.
Brian Greene has observed that no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to teach a dog calculus – their brains simply aren't “wired” for it. He goes on to make the point that, in a similar fashion, humans may simply not be wired to understand the workings behind what we think we observe and know. We will never know if we stop asking.
Dan
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