General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe earth hums and sings, just as the poets always knew.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/12/08/scientists-are-slowly-unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-earths-mysterious-hum/?utm_term=.921ff9e89b74It's a low, ceaseless droning of unclear origin that rolls imperceptibly beneath our feet, impossible to hear with human ears. A researcher once described it to HuffPost as the sound of static on an old TV, slowed down 10,000 times.
It's comforting to think of Earth as solid and immovable, but that's false. The world is vibrating, stretching and compressing. We're shaking right along with it.
The earth is ringing like a bell all the time, said Spahr Webb, a seismologist at Columbia University.
Hmm, so the poets were right about the music of the spheres:
Kindling within the strings of the waved air
Aeolian modulations.
Listen too,
How every pause is filled with under-notes,
Clear, silver, icy, keen awakening tones,
Which pierce the sense, and live within the soul,
As the sharp stars pierce winter's crystal air
And gaze upon themselves within the sea.
Prometheus Unbound, Percy Bysshe Shelley
sailfla
(239 posts)suffragette
(12,232 posts)malaise
(267,824 posts)Thanks sis
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Unbound at once when reading this. Shelley caught a lot of crap for that play since he called out religious hypocrisy in part of it.
Lyrical beauty plus activism against hypocrisy - love it.
Hope all is well with you.
malaise
(267,824 posts)All is well - hope all is well with you
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Two GIANT steps backward at that.
Just came out of some incredibly dark and gloomy days around here and am enjoying the sunshine while it visits.
matt819
(10,749 posts)My tinnitus allows me to hear sounds all the time, and they drive me nuts.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Persist during a cold. Just a temporary annoyance unlike your persistent tinnitus, but drove me crazy while it lasted. I feel for you.
packman
(16,296 posts)suffragette
(12,232 posts)Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)But no one writes poems about it
sl8
(13,584 posts)suffragette
(12,232 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)On edit: Still watching flames from the Thomas Fire race up the Central Coast. Our adult kids are doing voluntary evac from their respective homes. Yep, that fire sure looks alive, too. 'Struth.
The Earth isn't alive by any definition I know. It would be pretty terrifying for the Earth to consume and multiply...
Hekate
(90,202 posts)Off the top of my head (my entire library is left behind in our evacuated house) all I can recall is "Earth" by David Brin, and you'll have to look up the Gaia Hypothesis because I can't remember if that's the name of a book or if it was just incorporated into books and articles.
Think of the interconnected synapses of your brain and body, and imagine the interconnectedness of all beings. Life appears in niches I never could have imagined: next to boiling hot vents in the abyssal depths, in bubbles in the underside of ice in the Antarctic... Astonishing.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I was surprised to discover that our gravity winds sweeping up and over the tall mountains, the Santa Anas, could disturb me. Many have recorded their feelings and assumptions about the effects of those winds, accurate not always perhaps, but an interconnection very real however experienced.
The earth is a wondrous and magnificent superorganism, but perhaps we are formed for our own wellbeing by earth itself to be deaf to its orgasms.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)I don't know about others, but my husband and I always step outside and sniff the air for smoke. We close up the house because all the wind from the hills is full of allergens. There have been times that opening the front door after dark has been like opening the door to an oven, as the air heats up flowing downhill.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)but not at all depressing. That full glass of beer.
We didn't have allergies and always had the windows and doors open as much as possible, which was a great deal of the time once self-lidded garbage cans became the norm. After them, if the odd fly found its way in in I shooed it back out the door or let it find its own way. Here in mosquito and insect country, I miss that seamless connection with the outdoors a lot! I was always dusting and vacuuming, though.
I'm imagining your books are missing you too.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)All the coffee table/art books, all the poetry books, all the myth/folktale books on the shelves surrounding the fireplace in the family room. I was very pleased with the effect. Other rooms have other collections, and I still have boxes to unpack when we get back ....
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)50,000 more acres, more evacuations. Really hope all's still well in your area.
I love what books do for rooms. They just say good living to me. Before the web, I used to tear favorite pictures out of every decorating magazine I got hold of. When looking through for ideas, I'd occasionally be startled by some real "ugly" room, then realize, oh, I kept it for those foot-wide bookcases surrounding the windows (because that's where they had room for more). And then I'd be charmed.
Piasladic
(1,160 posts)Is this how you see the Gaia Hypothesis (not accepted by most)?
From Wikipedia: "Less accepted versions of the hypothesis claim that changes in the biosphere are brought about through the coordination of living organisms and maintain those conditions through homeostasis. In some versions of Gaia philosophy, all lifeforms are considered part of one single living planetary being called Gaia. In this view, the atmosphere, the seas and the terrestrial crust would be results of interventions carried out by Gaia through the co-evolving diversity of living organisms."
Bold is mine.
While Brin did speak of coalescence, this is not what I think he meant. Just because the Earth isn't accommodating to human infestation, doesn't mean the Earth has a plan.
It just means that humans are fully capable of fucking themselves over.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)I lived in Fullerton for quite awhile and dreaded the annual Santa Ana winds and the fires they often fueled.
Best thoughts to you and for everyones safety.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)I know, I know.
K&R
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Farts are the tubas in the band. Got to keep that rhythm going.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)I blame Shelley. He started it.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)And his own Aeolian processes could be said to have shaped our world/mind.
tavernier
(12,322 posts)at an early age to always say hello to it when he passed by, because the ocean is a living thing and deserves our respect and recognition. One day in second grade he came home in tears. Said that his teacher told him that he was wrong; that the ocean is not alive. I suppose that she meant that it was only water filled with various living parts, which is the same analogy that can be applied to the human body. Unfortunately she felt that the ocean was minus a soul. How sad for her.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Feel the same way about the Salish sea.
Heres a poem for you both, about the forest rather than the sea, but same idea.
Lost" [by David Wagoner]
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
-- David Wagoner
(1999)
tavernier
(12,322 posts)Thanks!
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)suffragette
(12,232 posts)an incident that took place camping at a park there years ago.
Had been away fishing during the hot day and returned to our campsite. What a sight greeted us!
A group of 5 or six squirrels were coordinating their effort to drag a small vinyl cooler back to their home. This was the type of small cooler (more a case really) that you would put a six pack in. We had tater tots in it.
When we got close, they reluctantly dropped the cooler, but gathered a few feet away to chitter their disappointment at us before going away. They had clearly tried to chew through the vinyl, but when that didnt work, they had joined forces to carry it away.
Never saw a bandit squirrel gang before - or since.
Definitely not poetry, but I hope it brought a smile to you. It sure did to me back in the day.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)Backyard fences make highways for critters to access SoCal fruit trees, and in this case there is a power pole at the intersection of 3 backyard fences. Squirrel frisked his tail on top the fence to attract the attention of the dogs, then scampered up the power pole laughing. They do know what they are doing.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)To have a neighbor that had a tree and fed extra avocados to his dog. That dog had the glossiest coat.