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suffragette

(12,232 posts)
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 03:00 PM Dec 2017

The 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=.921ff9e89b74

The world hums. It shivers endlessly.

It'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:

'Tis the deep music of the rolling world
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
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The earth hums and sings, just as the poets always knew. (Original Post) suffragette Dec 2017 OP
Thank you for that! sailfla Dec 2017 #1
Youre welcome! Quite the reminder that if we are still and listen, we will hear wonders. suffragette Dec 2017 #3
Lovely malaise Dec 2017 #2
Hi sis! A reminder of the beauty of the universe in which we live. Thought of Prometheus suffragette Dec 2017 #4
Religious hypocrisy has this planet in a total and complete mess malaise Dec 2017 #6
It sure does. We seem to be in the two steps backward part of the cycle now. suffragette Dec 2017 #9
In the meantime matt819 Dec 2017 #5
Yeah, thats no fun. Had a crackling sound in my ears suffragette Dec 2017 #13
Of course, Everyone knew that packman Dec 2017 #7
Now Ill be humming that all day. suffragette Dec 2017 #17
So does my drier Loki Liesmith Dec 2017 #8
Well, get crackin' -- it ain't gonna write itself. sl8 Dec 2017 #10
It should join with my washer. Create quite the band! suffragette Dec 2017 #18
How absolutely wonderful. The Earth is a living being, is she not? Hekate Dec 2017 #11
Life Piasladic Dec 2017 #12
More than one Sci Fi author has addressed this, as have scientists in the Gaia Hypothesis... Hekate Dec 2017 #16
I always loved the wind and still do, but in Southern California Hortensis Dec 2017 #21
Raymond Chandler's description has always struck me ... Hekate Dec 2017 #27
I think that's the effect he wanted, disturbing like the winds, Hortensis Dec 2017 #30
Nice thought that my books may be missing me, too. I finally got one book-wall completed... Hekate Dec 2017 #31
Speaking of the earth, just read about the fires overnight. Hortensis Dec 2017 #37
David Brin's Piasladic Dec 2017 #38
Yes, she is. Frida Kahlo imagined that beautifully. suffragette Dec 2017 #14
I don't know about Aeolian modulations but she farted in my general direction once. Solly Mack Dec 2017 #15
Solly, my dear, I adore you! suffragette Dec 2017 #19
and I you! Solly Mack Dec 2017 #20
Must be the British breakfast of bangers and beans on toast. suffragette Dec 2017 #23
That would do it. Solly Mack Dec 2017 #24
I live next to the ocean and I taught my grandson tavernier Dec 2017 #22
Im with you and your grandson. suffragette Dec 2017 #25
Gave me goose bumps. tavernier Dec 2017 #28
Youre welcome. One of my favorites. suffragette Dec 2017 #34
Oh, Sufragette. Thank you for the poetry. Hekate Dec 2017 #29
Glad to share, Hekate. On another note, thinking of SoCal and the forest made me remember suffragette Dec 2017 #33
ROFL. This eve we watched a very fat squirrel (avocados) tease the dogs Hekate Dec 2017 #35
They do enjoy teasing, dont they? Bet it had a shiny fur coat from eating the avocados. Used suffragette Dec 2017 #36
Hmmmm? Achilleaze Dec 2017 #26
Now, In harmony suffragette Dec 2017 #32

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
4. Hi sis! A reminder of the beauty of the universe in which we live. Thought of Prometheus
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 03:20 PM
Dec 2017

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)
6. Religious hypocrisy has this planet in a total and complete mess
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 03:26 PM
Dec 2017

All is well - hope all is well with you

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
9. It sure does. We seem to be in the two steps backward part of the cycle now.
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 04:05 PM
Dec 2017

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.

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
13. Yeah, thats no fun. Had a crackling sound in my ears
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 04:29 PM
Dec 2017

Persist during a cold. Just a temporary annoyance unlike your persistent tinnitus, but drove me crazy while it lasted. I feel for you.

Hekate

(90,202 posts)
11. How absolutely wonderful. The Earth is a living being, is she not?
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 04:23 PM
Dec 2017


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.

Piasladic

(1,160 posts)
12. Life
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 04:29 PM
Dec 2017

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)
16. More than one Sci Fi author has addressed this, as have scientists in the Gaia Hypothesis...
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 04:51 PM
Dec 2017

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)
21. I always loved the wind and still do, but in Southern California
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 05:05 PM
Dec 2017

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.

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.” ~ Raymond Chandler


"There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sand storms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to flash point. For a few days now we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night. I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air. To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior." ~ Joan Didion - The Santa Ana"


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)
27. Raymond Chandler's description has always struck me ...
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 05:38 PM
Dec 2017
Somehow both horrifying and amusing.

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)
30. I think that's the effect he wanted, disturbing like the winds,
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 05:50 PM
Dec 2017

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)
31. Nice thought that my books may be missing me, too. I finally got one book-wall completed...
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 06:15 PM
Dec 2017

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)
37. Speaking of the earth, just read about the fires overnight.
Mon Dec 11, 2017, 07:52 AM
Dec 2017

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)
38. David Brin's
Sat Dec 16, 2017, 05:49 PM
Dec 2017
Earth

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)
14. Yes, she is. Frida Kahlo imagined that beautifully.
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 04:38 PM
Dec 2017


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 everyone’s safety.

tavernier

(12,322 posts)
22. I live next to the ocean and I taught my grandson
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 05:14 PM
Dec 2017

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)
25. Im with you and your grandson.
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 05:24 PM
Dec 2017

Feel the same way about the Salish sea.

Here’s 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)

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
33. Glad to share, Hekate. On another note, thinking of SoCal and the forest made me remember
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 08:55 PM
Dec 2017

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 didn’t 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)
35. ROFL. This eve we watched a very fat squirrel (avocados) tease the dogs
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 11:04 PM
Dec 2017

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)
36. They do enjoy teasing, dont they? Bet it had a shiny fur coat from eating the avocados. Used
Sun Dec 10, 2017, 11:53 PM
Dec 2017

To have a neighbor that had a tree and fed extra avocados to his dog. That dog had the glossiest coat.

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