I Am in Awe

 

by Marilyn Moore

I am in awe.  Along with many others, I’ve been gazing at the lunar eclipse tonight, as the moon is covered by shadow, and to these earthly viewers it appears red, the blood moon.  My phone photo doesn’t begin to capture it….I’m grateful to the really good photographers, with really good cameras, who share their work.  But while my phone doesn’t capture the details, the photo reminds me of the awesomeness of the experience, and I am so in need of being reminded of awe.  

Another heavenly awesome finding from this week was the image of the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.  At 27,000 light years away from planet Earth, the black hole swallows nearby gas and light, pulling them into a seemingly bottomless pit.  I can’t really comprehend the enormity of any of that statement….but it is awesome.  And it confirms decades of theoretical work, consistent with Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The image itself is the result of five years of work by more than 300 researchers from eighty institutions working with eight radio telescopes around the globe.  Can you imagine working with that many people for that long to get one clear image?  It’s described by the California Institute of Technology researchers as like capturing a photo of a grain of salt in New York City using a camera in Los Angeles.  That image, and my barest understanding of what it portrays and how it was created, is awesomeness beyond words to describe…and I am so in need of awe.  

And as if a lunar eclipse and an image of the black hole, the gentle giant in the center of the galaxy, as Feryal Ozel, professor at the University of Arizona describes it, weren’t enough awesomeness, there was the news story this week that seeds have sprouted and plants are being grown in soil returned to Earth from the moon…that same moon we’re all adoring this evening.  Think of that…soil from the moon, growing plants on Earth.  Which means lunar soil can support growth of plants at that time in the future when courageous folks with vision establish a village on the moon.  The stuff of which science fiction was at one time made…now in the realms of reality.  Awesome it is…and I am so in need of awe.

It’s been a whiplash of months, from the Covid surge in the early part of this year, to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early March, to the furor over the likely Supreme Court decision regarding Roe v. Wade, to the prairie fire that destroyed so much in southwestern Nebraska, including much of the farm where I grew up and where my family still lives, to the bloody, exhausting primary election in Nebraska, just concluded earlier this week.  I can’t watch the news, I can’t not watch the news.  I’m torn between wanting to jump in and speak up and march in protests…and just close the door, pick up a good book, and wait it all out.  Moments of awesomeness have been few and far between. 

But this night, this eclipse, this image of the black hole, this sign of life in lunar soil, sings the song I need to hear…the universe is vast, the universe is pulsing with energy and vitality, the universe is filled with possibility, and the universe is awesome.  And every once in a while, we get to glimpse it. While there are a million and one messes that need attention, and we’re all called to clean up duty, there are also those scientists and poets among us who take the much longer view, both in time and distance, and serve up reminders of awesomeness just when I need them most.

Most awesome, still, is the human spirit, the human potential.  National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said it best, in describing the work of the researchers who created the image of the black hole.  “This image is a testament to what we can accomplish, when as a global research community, we bring our brightest minds together to make the seemingly impossible, possible.  Language, continents, and even the galaxy can’t stand in the way of what humanity can accomplish when we come together for the greater good of all.” 

Read that last sentence again....language, continents, and even the galaxy can't stand in the way of what humanity can accomplish when we come together for the greater good of all.  That is awesome.  And I am so in need of awe....