I am not sure if you are aware about a black hole but if you
are not then it is, most simply put, a collapsed star in which a huge amount of
matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. What does this do? It creates a
gravitational field so strong that even light cannot escape it. So the finding of a black
hole is searching for a lost light. The light waves curve around the
circumference of the black hole and one captures the image of the black hole by
capturing the missing trail of photons. In short like a lot of extra-terrestrial
things, black hole is also present conspicuously by its absence.
This is
something that is scientifically enriching as it gives validity to the Theory
of Relativity of Einstein where he claimed that huge masses curve space through
their gravity and hence also dilate time as we know it. Imagine a heavy ball placed
at the center of a piece of cloth. The weight of the ball is going to warp the
space around it and make the cloth curve towards its bottom center. If a light
as wave was travelling parallel to the surface of the cloth as it would
normally do, it would be now curved and travel a greater distance bypassing the
ball. So an observant on the other side might receive the light ray later than
he could have if the surface was not warped. So an increase in time or a
dilation. Although I have very limited knowledge of the matter and I present it
as I understand it, my aim for the article is not to delve into the pedantic of
the phenomena but draw a parallel in our socio-political life.
The fact that
huge masses can warp space and black holes can capture light tells me that the
absoluteness of things are only a reality in small and un-warped spaces. Something
that gives precedence to post modernism and subjectivity found profoundly in
the Abstract Expressionist art. A civilization by its sheer weight of existence
has always warped the fabric of culture and society and given us understanding
of how emotions are to be felt and understood. Degrees of freedom and
expression are all the spaces warped by the cultural heavy-weight of a
civilization. Emanuel Kant has consciously mentioned about our limitation to
understand extra-terrestrial realities and has been carefully censured through
the ideology that to know that we have a limit is to know that there is
something beyond the limit. To know that I have travelled only halfway is to
know that there is an equal distance left. But limitation of knowledge presumes
an end point that is not in sight, again only present conspicuously by its
absence. How far we are from truth
question presupposes that we know where the truth is, which is not always the
case.
Reality, truth and
lies are those massive things which have and will distort time and space and we
will get to know which is which only when the light has finally travelled to
us. Distance is an important factor astronomically as the sky we see at night
does not really exist in real time but is just a memory that has travelled
millions of kilometer to give us the assumption that it does and we are not a
bit hesitant in assuming that it is the reality. We are mostly looking at the
thing that has ceases to exist before we realize. To draw a parallel in our
private lives, in our love affairs, I would like to assume that a couple r a
set of lovers are nothing but two stars hanging and revolving endlessly in a
dark space of emotions, producing and reflecting warmth through affection. But as
the universe is expanding, the space between the duo most often than not,
expands and creates emotional distance. Some term it as comfort zone. A space
where we know the intensity of heat the other star is capable of producing.
This growing
space creates an illusion of past emotional stability and if one of them is not
observant enough, the light from the other might come as a memory of distance
past while the upheaval in the star in real time will be an understanding of
future. The other star might even have collapsed ages ago but the distance is
so huge between the two stars now that the death of emotions are only perceived
ages later when it is already too late. Very rarely it happens that the stars
with time grow such healthy emotion positive-ness that they warp the expanding
space and pulling each other closer and reducing the distance in real time. This
is a proactive thing. It is not going to happen passively and probably this is
what is termed in the relationship sphere as “Putting in efforts”.
This analogy
is not limited to an external affair alone. This can be extrapolated to
internal affairs as well. Looking at yourself from a third person perspective
we can see that the “we” that we see in real time and the “we” that we thought
that we would be are also like two stars around in the space of time.
We all have had a
desire of how the future should unravel itself and how we would be in certain
relation with self and society. This idea of self and the reality of self are
those two massive stars. But the dynamics don’t remain the same as they were
when we began. Either the self that I assumed is closer to the self that I am
or I am not what I thought I am. This is not a standalone issue. Society,
culture, civilization, self are quite obviously involved. Self, we can see, but
the rest are only present conspicuously by their absence. This gap will grow
with time unless I assert myself with the ideologies that I think are conducive
for reducing the distance and stemming the expansion.
Great personalities
around the world have created this huge self-masses of their existence finding
an equilibrium between what they think they are and what they actually are and
this equilibrium is something that will let you know about your internal self
in real time and not make you collapsed star which will get noticed ages later
when all the light inside you will go missing in the huge black hole of
emotions.
