Star light, star bright

Early this morning we had a waning crescent moon. Not much light but very attractive. Sometimes it's nice to be in the dark. We'll get to try something like "darkness at the break of noon" this Thursday with the partial solar eclipse at sunset. [I've probably been spending too much time listening to the CDs of Dylan's 30th Anniversary concert. He wrote lyrics for the ages, especially this one.]

After sunset, the sun also rises

Photo by J. Harrington

Speaking of stars, and don't forget, to the rest of the Milky Way our sun is just another star, there's a wonderful piece about Wendell Berry by Darby Minow Smith in Grist. Wendell, as always, just makes sense in such a way that I often am left starry-eyed and wonder why we don't all just do as he says. Especially when the alternatives frequently involve situations where utilities must innovate or go extinct, or efforts to resurrect a moribund nuclear energy sector. How quickly we seem to forget situations like Fukishima, and, please, don't give me any "can't happen here" nonsense. As soon as all the legislative bodies on earth have unanimously rescinded Murphy's Law, we can talk. Actually, I'll make it easier, as soon as Congress unanimously rescinds Murphy's Law we can talk.

The Sound of the Sun

By George Bradley 

It makes one all right, though you hadn’t thought of it,

A sound like the sound of the sky on fire, like Armageddon,   

Whistling and crackling, the explosions of sunlight booming   

As the huge mass of gas rages into the emptiness around it.

It isn’t a sound you are often aware of, though the light speeds   

To us in seconds, each dawn leaping easily across a chasm   

Of space that swallows the sound of that sphere, but   

If you listen closely some morning, when the sun swells   

Over the horizon and the world is still and still asleep,   

You might hear it, a faint noise so far inside your mind

That it must come from somewhere, from light rushing to darkness,   

Energy burning towards entropy, towards a peaceful solution,   

Burning brilliantly, spontaneously, in the middle of nowhere,   

And you, too, must make a sound that is somewhat like it,   

Though that, of course, you have no way of hearing at all. 

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