Part 2
Music of the Spheres
The Zone of Totality
Part 1 described the ecstasy of beholding a total eclipse of the Sun in North Georgia. The photo here was made by my dear friend Steve Killian with whom Darryl, several other Killians, and I enjoyed the splendid, inspiring day of the eclipse-- feasting on BBQ and swimming in the sunny pool.
It is thrilling to enjoy life, appreciating the beauty of Nature and the blessings of love and friendship. Yet, for all that, for all my desire that the beauty and richness of existence would prove an enduring plenitude, I know what the future holds for this lovely planet Earth.
Just as the Moon followed its orbit, just as its disc covered the disc of the far more distant Sun, forces are moving Earth as certainly toward its own darkness. We can champion and celebrate our lives, enjoy what we consider good in life, promote the small victories of curing a disease, saving a species here and there, cleaning up some of the garbage and filth we heap everywhere, land and sea. Yet we know, and science proves, that a planet with a 2 billion increase of population from 7 to 9 billion people in the next 30 years cannot sustain us. Whether we admit the scientific truth or not, focus on happy thoughts... or not, take to religion or the power of positive thinking, the inevitable is already happening, will continue to happen until the planet warms to catastrophic levels, the seas rise, many species become extinct, and the planet we love so much turns to desolation and death.
Should I add, as Al Gore does in his new film, or good journalists do daily now, the details of glaciers and polar caps melting, increasing deadly floods and storms, dying species, micro-plastic consumption by sea life everywhere, the devastation of overpopulation, the already occurring disasters from Nature under assault from our unimaginably vast pollution, the possibility and reality of wars...? No, the evidence is simply too great to ignore by all who are able to understand it. Science and truth are indifferent to our religion, our blind optimism, our hiding from the facts.
Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
Read while the facts are still available. Yes, this is really happening despite what T. and his corporate puppets are saying. Despite religion. Despite the power of positive thinking and despite ignoring the truth.
Unlike many, I am able to live the maxim: Eat, drink and be Merry; for tomorrow we shall perish. We shall, sooner than most realize. Watching the indifferent Moon block from our view the indifferent Sun made me aware, as if in a revelation, that Plato was right about Beauty. It is a Form, an Ideal that transcends our fragile existence. From the point of view of eternity, as Spinoza was aware, our passing worldly cares are nothing.
Jack Jameson
August 2017
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