Playing Fair and Being Kind

https://www.boston.com/news/science/2019/04/11/mit-katie-bouman-black-hole

We all have experienced black holes somewhere along our own timelines. Some of us continue to be threatened with annihilation should we accidentally fall into the gravitational pull of the beast. An interesting find of mine is I can sense the presence of a black hole; the type that exists here on this planet and often in my neighborhood. First let’s look at the story in the link I posted at the head of this blog entry. The story explains very simply what we need to know about black holes.
I’ll just copy the text here:

55 million light years from earth, at the heart of galaxy Messier 87, lies a monster black hole.
Weighing in at 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, it distorts spacetime like few objects in the universe.
It has enshrouded itself in a swirling disc of super-hot energy and matter, and radiates unimaginably powerful jets above and below.
Closer to the black hole, tremendous gravitation bends photons and particles far from intended paths.
Those that get too close get pulled in, never to escape. They’ve crossed the point of no return known as the event horizon.
The strange environment creates not only a black hole but a surrounding shadow, with escaping photons forming a ring.
That ring of light makes its way to earth, where it was captured by an earth-spanning observatory collaboration called the Event Horizon Telescope project.
Anchored by more than $28 million of sustained investment by the National Science Foundation, later joined by international support.
The project captured this image.

Not simulation of conjecture, the chaotic photons surrounding an unimaginable void.
This is the world’s first true look at a black hole.

By itself, the black hole can’t be seen. The photons and particles that escape the gravitational pull, the chaotic activity close to the black hole, the heat generated by the energy to resist the pull of the black hole give it away. I can apply this phenomenon to human behavior or to any behavior in this world. On this planet. To yesterday and maybe to today. Those of us who carry PTSD or memories similar to PTSD will understand this. Imagine an event similar to the event horizon spoken of in the above text. The presence of a black hole, which is a threatening memory or incident, exists. We come in close proximity to it or we see others do. The changed behavior of those in the event horizon give off vibes and chaotic signals that alert us to the presence of something we might associate with a black hole threat. I was in a meeting yesterday with a group of men who illustrated just this same phenomenon. In this group of men was one man who caused discomfort, dis-ease in the rest. Their behavior gave away the presence of the negative effect the one man generated. He was a black hole.

In another scene from my recent past I notice a number of crows raising a ruckus outside my house. I went to the window to see what was happening. All I could observe was the crows. They were intent on one object but the object of their displeasure was out of sight. Whichever window I looked out I could not see what it was that was attracting their ire. For quite a few minutes they clamored and cawed but I never saw directly what was the target. I know, from experience that there was a target. I’ve seen crows do this whenever a predator is discovered in their neighborhood. It’s an ‘all hands on deck’ situation. The crows’ past experience, PTSD, was activated. When I opened the front door and went outside to find out more, the crows were frightened off by my presence. I couldn’t see the predator but it showed itself much later after everything had settled down. A barred owl flew up onto the oil tank next to the house. There it was. The black hole.

Watching the video that is posted in the link at the head of this posting certainly was a trigger for me. The horrendous activity in the black hole is enough to raise the hair on my head. Even though, I was triggered beyond that scene. The threat metaphor raised more recorded events in my psyche which were just beyond reality. Watching the photon and particle struggle kicked up a few indelible wounds and scars. What a kick in the pants that was.
Peace out,
Gentle George
12 April 2019