Hear Jim’s podcast: https://jimreedbooks.com/
or read his transcript below:
THE APPLESEED UNIVERSE
I’m sitting on a rock some 500 feet above sea level, making notes.
The time is the 1970s, and this is the road to Mount Palomar observatory, way out west. Far away from my Deep South Alabama roots.
My small notepad with hardware store letterhead is filling up with penciled thoughts and memories and hopes and fears. Right now, nothing bad can happen because each time I glance at the valley below me, a deep sigh of relief issues forth involuntarily.
This is a special moment in time, and I know it will never happen again.
One of my lifelong dreams—to visit the world’s largest optical telescope. I have just done that. All it took was to wish upon some stars.
Now that I’m descending the mountain, I stop to absorb what has just occurred. The observatory is what I thought it would be—a symbol of my never-ending latent desire to know what’s beyond all visible boundaries. To know what’s out there. To find some hope beyond an encapsulated daily existence.
The very earthly presence of this telescope is a sign. A sign that there are others who, like me, want to find things out…just in case humanity has thus far managed to overlook something important.
So what’s the big deal? With bigger telescopes we learn that yet another billion galaxies exist. Does that help me pay the rent, feed the family, comfort the deprived?
Years later, I will find this quote from Martin Luther: ”Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Sounds as if Luther and you and I intuitively know the same thing. We know that whatever is out there or down there or over there is worthy of inspection, just because and despite. Because it’s there. Because it might be there. Because it’s important to know if it’s not there.
Bits of wisdom, carefully accumulated and notated upon a hardware store notepad, are worthy of archiving, because and despite. Despite the forces that suppress. Despite the naysaying cynics. Despite the persistent tendency to deny and avoid.
Apple trees must be planted. Stars must be counted. Attention must be paid.
Just despite. Just because
© 2019 A.D. by Jim Reed