Saturday, December 5, 2009

the why?( we care)

the cosmos is where we live. i wrote that down and then i wondered whether there was any point in the sentence. it isn't like saying india is where we live - because there are other countries where we might have lived but don't - or saying the earth is where we live - because there are other planets where we might have lived (or more probably died) but don't.
but it's natural to want to know more about where you live. natural to guess, and then be delighted equally by a confirmation or a contradiction.
natural to want to know whether your home has nine rooms - or eight (and the last promised room turned out to be a broom cupboard).
natural to want to know whether the central heating system will work fine for the next, say, five billion years.
natural to want to know whether the next few houses on the street have tenants yet - or the ones beyond.
natural to want to know whether the active nucleus of the township - its central hub - is the place most new apartment blocks are gravitating towards.
natural to want to know whether any of your neighbours are massively rich enough to swallow your little home whole.
natural to want to see whether the street outside is foggy or clear, and then natural to arm yourself with a flashlight to see the dark.
the dark. that's where so many of our questions come from and go back into. there's a fear associated with it - and a strange sort of fascination.
so far, we've been looking to the light for the answers to all these questions. looking to the stars and the energy they send, through storm and space, time and aeons to us, faithful observers of interstellar beauty.
teasing answers out of them - answers to our questions about them - and consequently about us.
and now we must look to the dark, as well.
it's been telling us, throughout our communion with light, telling us quietly but firmly that it's there - that it cannot be ignored. mischievously creeping into our observations and slyly toying with our gravitational calculations.
we live in the dark.
a dark that is penetrated by pinpricks of lovely starlight, true, but is dark nevertheless.
and it's natural to want to know what's hidden in the shadows of our cosmos.