I am reading this terrific book called "A Brief History of nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. It is the hitchhiker's guide to the world's sciences for your average Joe. This is one book I am definitely buying & stowing away!
So anyways, what got me thinking about this post was the chapter on the creation of the universe. The chapter on Black holes & Supernovae.
When a star dies, 2 kinds of fate await it. A Black hole which is so incredibly dense that it eats up everything in its vicinity. Not even light can get thru. The complete & total vacuum.
The other end a star could meet is that of a Supernova. A Supernova is basically also a super dense star that collapses onto itself & then quite literally spits its guts out in a "cosmic explosion"! These exploding stars are the one that throw out the required light & heat energy that eventually lead to the chemical miracle called life.
Now, you'd imagine that you'd have to peer a gazillion bazillion light years away thru a telescope to witness these things (well, you can't technically "see" a black hole, but we shall let the technicalities be!)! But, hold on there for a sec. Do you really need to see that far?
Just look around you. And you'll see these phenomena.
There are people around us - in our friends, workplaces, families - who have an insatiable appetite for cribbing and whining. They can whine their heads to baldness & drive you up the wall to do the same too! These are the black holes. They just completely suck the energy out of the environment around them.
And then there are those bright, chirpy, happy samaritans who like the supernova, just spread the good spirit. They occupy the Friday evening drinks table & the business canonhead table with equal ease. These guys infuse energy & positivity in their environment & invariably are the engines of the teams/social circles they are part of - they spread vibrancy & life!
Now here is the biggest irony of this whole business. There is a really, really fine line that decides whether a star will die a black hole or a supernova. (Till date, we can't predict with any degree of confidence which side the coin will flip on for a candidate dying star!).
Same thing with humans. There is a fine line between people who are well loved for their positivity & those that pride themselves on scorning & mocking at everything. There is but a razor's edge between being blaze and cool in life & being pessimistic!
So, there goes. Life can be really insignificant in this grand cosmos & yet the center of the universe for you & the people important to you! But unlike the black holes & the supernovae, we have the choice of making our lives what we want them to be... God has been indeed kind to us!
So, what will you be? The black hole or the multi-colored supernova?
Who am I? I'd like to hear from all you millions of galaxies out there who've been near me sometime or another :).
So anyways, what got me thinking about this post was the chapter on the creation of the universe. The chapter on Black holes & Supernovae.
When a star dies, 2 kinds of fate await it. A Black hole which is so incredibly dense that it eats up everything in its vicinity. Not even light can get thru. The complete & total vacuum.
The other end a star could meet is that of a Supernova. A Supernova is basically also a super dense star that collapses onto itself & then quite literally spits its guts out in a "cosmic explosion"! These exploding stars are the one that throw out the required light & heat energy that eventually lead to the chemical miracle called life.
Now, you'd imagine that you'd have to peer a gazillion bazillion light years away thru a telescope to witness these things (well, you can't technically "see" a black hole, but we shall let the technicalities be!)! But, hold on there for a sec. Do you really need to see that far?
Just look around you. And you'll see these phenomena.
There are people around us - in our friends, workplaces, families - who have an insatiable appetite for cribbing and whining. They can whine their heads to baldness & drive you up the wall to do the same too! These are the black holes. They just completely suck the energy out of the environment around them.
And then there are those bright, chirpy, happy samaritans who like the supernova, just spread the good spirit. They occupy the Friday evening drinks table & the business canonhead table with equal ease. These guys infuse energy & positivity in their environment & invariably are the engines of the teams/social circles they are part of - they spread vibrancy & life!
Now here is the biggest irony of this whole business. There is a really, really fine line that decides whether a star will die a black hole or a supernova. (Till date, we can't predict with any degree of confidence which side the coin will flip on for a candidate dying star!).
Same thing with humans. There is a fine line between people who are well loved for their positivity & those that pride themselves on scorning & mocking at everything. There is but a razor's edge between being blaze and cool in life & being pessimistic!
So, there goes. Life can be really insignificant in this grand cosmos & yet the center of the universe for you & the people important to you! But unlike the black holes & the supernovae, we have the choice of making our lives what we want them to be... God has been indeed kind to us!
So, what will you be? The black hole or the multi-colored supernova?
Who am I? I'd like to hear from all you millions of galaxies out there who've been near me sometime or another :).
