The sunlight scatters in the clouds as the two forces jostle for position in the sky. The streets are almost back to normal sans the throes of tourists that visit this time of year. There is still an air of trepidation, of cautiousness as we all try to pretend that everything is honky dory and back to normal.
It ain’t over ‘till the spiky lady sings.
In the meantime, let us follow those streets wherever they may lead. It’s springtime and out of the frozen cocoon, stormy reveries and moody blues, blossoms and blooms bright- life asserting itself in this pale blue dot.
One thing I've learned from macroshots is that nature is very fuzzy.
In a moment of gloominess, my mind betrays me and has such thoughts-
Look how easily life retreats in the presence of cold temperatures. Birds fly away as vegetation dies off, and those which cling to the last threads of warmth, provide little sustenance for stragglers. So life as we know it, carbon based life at least, cannot develop complex lively structures in the presence of extreme temperatures. We all know what happens when the heat is turned up on large swaths of territory. Life is rarely found in such places, though it always finds a way of surviving even in extreme conditions like undersea volcanic vents.
A ray of sunlight pierces through the clouds.
Then my outlook brightens. I seem to have developed an inability to be pessimistic about the Life condition. One day, I clearly perceived the tendency of humanity to be negative- the sad clowns of Picasso, Hemingway's Lost Heroes, Kerouac's sad angelic visions- and from that moment on my brain resolved to see everything from the wider perspective, even the minutia of daily life. I'm an optimist through and through, and as my mind gets sucked backed into this brilliant world of light, it thinks thus:
There could be other lifeforms based on a different configuration. Something strange and weird that we haven’t even dreamed of. Remember according to scientists, visible matter, the matter of atoms, electrons, and so on, is a relatively minuscule amount (< 5%) of what it’s actually there. Dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%) make up the rest of the universe. Could there be lifeforms made of dark matter? What about dark energy? Or is life solely the domain of normal matter? It can’t be.
I thought with cheerful assurance, there must be more! We'll find them one day on the event horizon. Our lovers in the dark.
Wow! Look at all those flowers! What does it mean?
The clouds roll over and cover the sky. A storm warning had been issued earlier; it was supposed to arrive overnight, blowing all day, and gusting winds until the following morning. All year round, we get some warm showers off the Pacific, but they're particularly more intense in Winter.
Downtown luxury living.
The showers arrived by late afternoon. I had brought an umbrella just in case. Hurrying home and picking up some wine on the way there. Tamales and empanadas from a small Latin shop on Davie st. The raindrops drumming on the umbrella, mixing with the sound and rhythm of the slow afternoon traffic, just like the old days. The simple pleasures of life. Alleyways and quaint side-streets leading through the wet city of glass. The buds bursting as they fill the space. Vegetative consciousness- Gaia herself- awakening from her winter slumber.
