The Edge of Darkness, the Bodyguard, and Why We Exist, Briefly

The Solstice occurred last night at 10:27 PM EST at the same instant for the entire of planet Earth. Clockwork. The binary shift of longer nights to longer days just happened.  

But sometimes things present in threes. Right on right on right on... Like those small dots that ended that sentence. 

If you have a big brother, raise your hand. Big sisters count too, but the brother variant can have a bit more heft from sheer physical force. We are going to lean into that. Having an older sibling means there is someone looking out for you. If you are a single child, you may get the same effect from your dad or an uncle, as it's stereotypically an older male figure in this role. This person has your back. How many movies have you seen with the big bro leaning in to a potential future with the line of "Don't you even think of _____." It's macho, probably textbook male aggression; but it is the nature of family dynamics and has been for centuries. You have a protector, a bodyguard. 

Comet Shoemaker Levy-9 was discovered in 1993. In passing by Jupiter on its long parabola around the sun, it was torn apart by Jovian gravity and captured to orbit our largest dance partner. Jupiter has more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined. Having the strongest magnetic field and the greatest tidal field in the solar system, it boasts 95 moons including Ganymede, the largest moon we have in the neighborhood and bigger than the planet Mercury.  As the colossus in the 'hood, Jupiter is a fast-spinning gas giant covered in storms of immeasurable violence. The Great Red Spot is a cyclone that has been raging for at least 350 years tearing through an atmosphere of ammonia, water vapor and methane with no solid planetary surface; although scientists believe now that there may be a core of metallic hydrogen (!?). I have a three-part photograph from an amateur photographer that I bought around 1995 that shows the dance of obliteration of Shoemaker Levy. Twenty-one fragments of the comet impacted the planet's surface in 1994 creating fireballs and debris fields some of which were larger than Earth and persisted for months. Yep, Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, is a massive freak, and our big brother. 

Jupiter deflects asteroids and comets, slinging them away out of the solar system entirely or capturing and devouring them. Hence the 95 moons. And hence the enormity of our big bro, a result of billions of years of absorbing space debris. Life on earth is a result of billions of years of stability. No planet killers have made it here, although the Cretaceous Period was ended 66 million years ago by a meteorite hitting the Yucatan. Life stumbled, and then roared back with even greater diversity. So, big brother let one by, and the result is us and birds and butterflies and basil and Beaujolais. 

And now the third part. Big brother Jupiter is devoid of life. How do we know? Because we can think, observe, do math, test. We are self aware. AND exactly, who is the "we"? I am writing to you and you are reading about science stuff. But we are nothing but space dust assembled by randomness into a mind that can consider considering. My DNA unraveled and laid end-to-end would reach Pluto and back. And what assembled this insanely unlikely string of chemicals but time and stability for it all to come together. WE are the universe itself coming into consciousness. Does ANYTHING exist without our looking at it? Is there a universe without US? A strong case can be made that until our brains evolved into having this exact discussion, there is only pure nothingness. Light, rocks, dust, radiation seething across the void... Somehow the nothingness wanted to know itself. Here we be.

 
It's the solstice. Light returns and darkness diminishes. It's a metaphor many are clinging to right now. A pivot toward brighter days. It's also a symbol of the emergence from the dark, the knowing replacing the unknown. 

Hug each other. The universe decided families are crucial, obviously. Big sisters and big brothers got your backs. A little holiday of lights, a little Christmas magic... We are the luckiest atoms as far as our telescopes can see...

Love and more love my friends. Please buy art made of light. It's a reminder of our ephemeral nature AND an anchor in our perceptual reality. Art can be a friend too. Take this time of year, the emergence back to the light, to celebrate with those siblings, the ones who keep an eye on you. Light a candle. Hang up some lights. 

Havoc is here for you.

Shining.

Blessings from me and Sarah the Fifth. We got your backs too. 

P.S. In Ireland is Newgrange, a one acre mound built by Stone Age farmers around 5,200 years ago. At dawn on the winter solstice, an aperture sends a beam of light down the passage leading to the center of an underground chamber. A thousand years older than Stonehenge, this is an agrarian culture's clock, a calendar, defining time with stones and dirt. They didn't know that they were made of supernovae elements. They certainly had no clue about DNA or Pluto. But self aware? They share that with us. Fifty two centuries ago, people with mostly my DNA were focused on light. Let's keep the ball rolling. We are the universe itself, seeing itself.