“Solstice of the Soul”

A few weeks ago I read an article by Dennis Overbye, entitled Solstice of the Soul, regarding his pending retirement. For the past after 25 years he has been the NY Times” cosmic affairs correspondent.” He writes that “science proceeds on skepticism not certainty is arguably the most successful human activity of all time.. We don’t know why there is something instead of nothing at all.” He quotes Andrea M. Ghez, the 2020 Nobel Prize winner for her research into the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, who says her favorite moments in science were those when she was confused. It is “doubt” that pushes me further into the mystery and wonder of God, further than “certainty” ever would! So today I share two very different poems from the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig. Different yet similar! Please read them carefully and out loud, and pause and ponder with both the small boy and the orbiting earth. And I recommend Samantha Harvey’s beautiful short novel “Orbital” which won this past year’s Booker Prize.

Small Boy
He picked up a pebble
and threw it into the sea.
And another, and another.
He couldn’t stop.
He wasn’t trying to fill the sea.
He wasn’t trying to empty the beach.
He was just throwing away,
nothing else but.
Like a kitten playing
he was practicing for the future
when there’ll be so many things
he’ll want to throw away
if only his fingers will unclench
and let them go.

Stars and Planets
Trees are cages for them: water holds its breath
To balance them without smudging on its delicate meniscus.
Children watch them playing in their heavenly playground;
Men use them to lug ships across oceans, through firths.

They seem so twinkle-still, but they never cease
Inventing new spaces and huge explosions
And migrating in mathematical tribes over
The steppes of space at their outrageous ease.

It’s hard to think that the earth is one –
This poor sad bearer of wars and disasters
Rolls-Roycing round the sun with its load of gangsters,
Attended only by the loveless moon. Norman MacCaig

Prayer:
Lord of earth and sky
creator of stars and planets
help us not to feel alone as we orbit
the Sun, a mere 92 Million miles from our reach.
Keep us awake to the mystery and wonder
that is both within us and all around us.
Save us from our desire for certainty and help us
be refreshed by the delights of all the complexities
of creation amidst our confusion. Amen.