ORDER AND DISORDER, PREDICTABILITY RANDOMNESS... Life Is Like That

I’ve been studying a year old report from astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory describing how they have discovered what is believed to be the birth of a black hole. First, I should acknowledge that I don’t know what I am talking about... that although I am fascinated by the subject, I am woefully ignorant of the science behind the report. A new book, which I will buy, is being published this week.

The object, if a black hole can be thought of as an object, is a remnant of a supernova in the galaxy M100 which is approximately 50 million light years from Earth. Even though the light from the supernova took 50 million light years to reach the observatory, astronomers are seeing the black hole when it was just thirty years old. I can only just begin to understand what this means by imagining that a picture of a baby sent through space for 100 years or 50 millions years would still be a picture of a baby. The image in the picture wouldn’t have grown old in the trip; so although the supernova which formed the black hole which the astronomers are seeing actually happened 50 millions years ago, the pictures they are receiving now shows what was happening when it was 30 years old.

What fascinates me about this story is that it says something terrifying and beautiful about the universe... perhaps about everything that exists or has existed, leaving us still to ponder what existed before the Big Bang... and how it began... and how it will end. On one hand astronomical evidence implies a beautiful order in the universe, and also that same evidence is proof of terrible catastrophes like supernova suddenly exploding and ejecting outward it’s mass.

The trick is to learn to appreciate the beauty in both order and chaos. Because I am learning to look closely, to see what is there to be seen, I have, perhaps perversely, found tree bark to be beautiful in its randomness, it’s seeming disorder. Bark is obviously necessary protection and conduit of nutrients for the living tree. On the other hand, the random change to its appearance fascinates me. The kaleidoscopic variations on the different varieties of eucalyptus trees in the cycles of seasons are examples of randomness and order together making beauty. The order and randomness are more enigmatic in oak trees, but both are there nonetheless.