Averyt: Walking Space

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(Host) While South Burlington poet and commentator Anne Averyt admits to
a fascination with black holes and dark matter, she is also intrigued
by the mysteries of ordinary life all around her.

(Averyt)
According to recent news reports, an international team of physicists
has discovered what they call the God particle, the singular, smallest
substance responsible for all else, the spark that may have ignited the
Big Bang, the secret that unlocks the secret to everything.
 
Ever
since Eve chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge rather than accept
the bliss of obedience, we’ve been dissatisfied with the ephemeral. We
want explanations, we want to know the reasons why and our curiosity of
mind is the story of civilization, our never-ending efforts to reach
beyond, to understand.
 
"One small step for a man," Neil
Armstrong said after walking through space to step on to the surface of
the moon. "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
 
I
must admit I have a fascination with space, with wonderful, imaginative
words and concepts like event horizon, parallel universe, worm hole and
dark matter. I’m especially intrigued by black holes that turn on
themselves, swallowing whole stars, then spitting out the energy to
create new life. Just as the humus of the forest floor nurtures growth
on earth, so from the darkness and death of distant cannibalized stars
comes the intense explosion of energy that eventually creates new stars
and galaxies.
 
Perhaps most mind-boggling has been the
"discovery" that we can’t account for 95 percent of all matter. It’s
hiding out of reach, out of sight, out of touch, but we know it’s there
because it has to be – we need it to explain everything "else." Without
dark matter and dark energy nothing else makes sense.
 
I applaud
these efforts to explain existence, I find them fascinating. But then I
also marvel at the simple yet complex beauty of a rose, the smell of
lavender and the flight of a fragile winged butterfly. I’m filled with
wonder when I see the intricate beauty of a newborn baby’s hands and
the weathered face of age, full of the beauty of years, of experience,
of living.
 
Maybe scientists are in fact close to explaining
how it all started, how we got from there to here and perhaps even where
everything is headed. In the meantime, I’m just going to fill my life
with as much of the mystery of living as I can …
 
I’ll fill my
days with the awe of a pink and purple sunset over the lake, with the
simple pleasure of strolling down a back country road. I’ll savor the
joys of summer in Vermont, the smells and sights of the ordinary that
make life special, the sounds of quiet, the heart beat of contentment –
the small steps that for me are just as important as the giant leap;
I’ll celebrate what lives around us and in us – without which we can’t
really understand all that looms beyond.

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