Obviously, a black swan of pandemic has descended violently upon the world, one of those unpredictable, though not entirely unexpected events that periodically return to disrupt daily life. By coincidence, another unpredictable and not entirely unexpected event has occurred: A newly discovered comet, a green “swan” passing through our Solar Neighborhood.
Discovered through images taken by the Solar Wind ANisotrophies Instrument, acronym SWAN and the agnomen of the comet officially designated C/2020 F8, the new visitor to our orbit was photographed to reveal its green-glowing head and wispy long ion tail.* That green glow emanates from carbon atoms excited by the Solar Wind; the tail, from ionized gases also struck by charged particles ejected from the Sun, the same kinds of particles that give us our Aurora Borealis.
Green. A fitting color for a visitor. Something like “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” fashion. It’s the carbon in the comet and the carbon in life on our planet that reveal a common tie. Is there something noteworthy that a single type of atom is so essential to building two types of swans that fill our skies, the earthly swan and the cometary SWAN? Should we draw some kind of conclusion that takes us back to our animistic religions, the conclusion that life and nonlife are intimately related, that the universe is, for all its diversity, largely unified, the organic and inorganic inseparable?**
This is not a call to worship or fear a comet as in ancient times, nor is it a call to worship a bird or tree or any finite life-form. Rather, it’s a call to look at the underlying unities that encompass us. And then ask, “If I can see some sort of unity between me and all that surrounds me, can I also see some sort of underlying unity within life, and, more specifically, within humanity? Shouldn’t that unity be sufficient, without any ethical or moral codes, to engender at least mutual respect, if not love?”
And yet, surrounded by both subtle and overt hints at unity, we find ourselves constantly embroiled in petty differences. For humans all times are times of disunity; every age is besieged by conflict, if not here, then there, both then and now. The appearance of a swan, organic or inorganic, might serve as a reminder that in our very makeup a single type of atom unites the conscious and the unconscious, the thinking and the thought-about.
Both ancient and contemporary animists might have little in common with you except in this: Recognition of a connection that runs through the universe, a connection sometimes manifested in an inimical and indifferent black swan that threatens and divides us and at other times in a celestial green swan, also indifferent, that reminds us of our common ties to the cosmos and to one another.
* http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/soho-comet-c2020-f8-swan-08426.html Accessed May 17, 2020. The article in SciNews shows an animation from the Solar Wind Anisotrophies Instrument that Michael Mattiazzo used to find the new comet. Its orbit can be seen in the New York Times article by Johathan Corum (May 12, 2020) in Following Comet SWAN at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/12/science/comet-swan-photos.html
Accessed May 17, 2020. The article also contains images of the green-glowing comet.
**Or are the simultaneous arrivals of the black swan of COVID-19 and the green SWAN together a modern version of the ancient myth of Zeus and Leda, preserved in the skies as Cygnus, a reminder that the hidden forces of the universe are both inimical and beneficial, both violent and creative? Zeus’ rape of Leda engendered in the offspring a history of tragic human relationships, culminating in the fall of Troy and the death of Agamemnon. See various versions of the myth and William Butler Yeats’ famous poem “Leda and the Swan” to draw your own inferences and conclusions. In the grasp of the black swan of a pandemic, do we helpless humans learn something divine? Should we ask, to paraphrase Yeats, “Will we put on his knowledge with his power/Before the indifferent beak lets us drop?”
Discovered through images taken by the Solar Wind ANisotrophies Instrument, acronym SWAN and the agnomen of the comet officially designated C/2020 F8, the new visitor to our orbit was photographed to reveal its green-glowing head and wispy long ion tail.* That green glow emanates from carbon atoms excited by the Solar Wind; the tail, from ionized gases also struck by charged particles ejected from the Sun, the same kinds of particles that give us our Aurora Borealis.
Green. A fitting color for a visitor. Something like “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” fashion. It’s the carbon in the comet and the carbon in life on our planet that reveal a common tie. Is there something noteworthy that a single type of atom is so essential to building two types of swans that fill our skies, the earthly swan and the cometary SWAN? Should we draw some kind of conclusion that takes us back to our animistic religions, the conclusion that life and nonlife are intimately related, that the universe is, for all its diversity, largely unified, the organic and inorganic inseparable?**
This is not a call to worship or fear a comet as in ancient times, nor is it a call to worship a bird or tree or any finite life-form. Rather, it’s a call to look at the underlying unities that encompass us. And then ask, “If I can see some sort of unity between me and all that surrounds me, can I also see some sort of underlying unity within life, and, more specifically, within humanity? Shouldn’t that unity be sufficient, without any ethical or moral codes, to engender at least mutual respect, if not love?”
And yet, surrounded by both subtle and overt hints at unity, we find ourselves constantly embroiled in petty differences. For humans all times are times of disunity; every age is besieged by conflict, if not here, then there, both then and now. The appearance of a swan, organic or inorganic, might serve as a reminder that in our very makeup a single type of atom unites the conscious and the unconscious, the thinking and the thought-about.
Both ancient and contemporary animists might have little in common with you except in this: Recognition of a connection that runs through the universe, a connection sometimes manifested in an inimical and indifferent black swan that threatens and divides us and at other times in a celestial green swan, also indifferent, that reminds us of our common ties to the cosmos and to one another.
* http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/soho-comet-c2020-f8-swan-08426.html Accessed May 17, 2020. The article in SciNews shows an animation from the Solar Wind Anisotrophies Instrument that Michael Mattiazzo used to find the new comet. Its orbit can be seen in the New York Times article by Johathan Corum (May 12, 2020) in Following Comet SWAN at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/12/science/comet-swan-photos.html
Accessed May 17, 2020. The article also contains images of the green-glowing comet.
**Or are the simultaneous arrivals of the black swan of COVID-19 and the green SWAN together a modern version of the ancient myth of Zeus and Leda, preserved in the skies as Cygnus, a reminder that the hidden forces of the universe are both inimical and beneficial, both violent and creative? Zeus’ rape of Leda engendered in the offspring a history of tragic human relationships, culminating in the fall of Troy and the death of Agamemnon. See various versions of the myth and William Butler Yeats’ famous poem “Leda and the Swan” to draw your own inferences and conclusions. In the grasp of the black swan of a pandemic, do we helpless humans learn something divine? Should we ask, to paraphrase Yeats, “Will we put on his knowledge with his power/Before the indifferent beak lets us drop?”
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