Yippee! I'm a goddess! Yesterday at the bookstore where I work there were some university science students and instructors demonstrating experiments for the public. At first the whole thing looked rather Mickey Mouse to me, but then, thanks to a couple of earnest, young astronomy and physics geeks, I finally got a handle on how gravity works.
I always knew that the greater the mass, the greater the force of gravity it exerts. But I didn't know that anything with mass, including light, bends space and time. Hence the spacetime continuum. It's the curvature of the contimuum that pulls other, smaller masses towards the larger object. The geeks demonstrated this by placing a heavy ball in the middle of a small trampoline-like device, then threw ping pong balls onto the trampoline, which naturally fell towards the weighted ball on the sloping curve. But the ping pong balls didn't fall straight in, they orbited around the central ball several times, getting closer with each orbit before joining it in the middle. Suddenly a little bit more of the Universe made sense to me. Science rocks.
(It seems the Quechua peoples of South America have always understood
this. Their grand and mighty earth goddess, Pachamama, doesn't just
embody space, but time as well.
Pacha is usually translated as "world," but the the concept of time is implicit in the word, too.)
The best discovery of all, however, was that due to my mass, little old me bends space and time and has a gravitational field, infinitesimal as it is. So when someone is drawn or pulled to another person, in other words
gravitates towards the object of their attraction, it truly is a
physical attraction, in every sense of the word. Now that's truly awesome.
With that understanding came the realisation I must be a goddess because I bend time and space. Humans can bend physical mass, but who knew we bend time and space by our mere existence? (Well, obviously much smarter, more scientific minds than I, but you know what I mean.) I'd always thought that physical feats of bending the immaterial was the purview of the gods, not mere mortals. But now I know I have those properties, too. I must be a goddess! Wow!
Okay, I know what you're thinking - given that logic, it means we're all gods and goddesses. But give me a break, eh? Don't burst my bubble. Right now I'm riding the high of discovering a little bit more about myself and my place in this vast, infinite, and awe-inspiring Universe. And it's sure a hell of a lot better place to be than when I used to think that my existence was defined by nothing more than consuming, polluting and taking up space, which of course we all do as well. It's a matter of perspective. And I much prefer the perspective I have now.
So please indulge me as I repeat my new mantra one more time - I am a goddess!
- G. P.
I'm doing it to honour All Mothers Everywhere and for All Time.
