Ah, yes...the notoriously violent destruction of inescapable gravitational pull into oblivion. You know, it wasn't until 2019 that we had any physical evidence of these mysterious celestial garbage disposals:
A picture of Messier 87 AKA Virgo A
Even though Einstein predicted them in 1916, John Wheeler coined the term "black hole" in 1967, and Stephen Hawking made it his life's work (unfortunately succumbing to his 50-year struggle with Lou Gehrig's Disease on Pi Day, 3/14/2018, just over a year before the image was rendered), the math was validated after 103 years!
So, what do black holes have to teach us? Besides the fact that Matthew McConaughey can bend spacetime inside of them to access THE BACK of his library *gasp*
Well, to name a few...
Black holes are catalysts of change
They rip light into darkness so that new light can be born.
They are constantly growing...in fact, they can't shrink
Everything within them is unknowable to everything outside of them
Black holes simply destroy to create, and in their chaos, create order.
For example, black holes tear apart organized galaxies, which results in cosmic nebulous dust clouds called nebulas, which swirl around what eventually becomes a supermassive black hole, providing structure as attracts more matter which matures into an even bigger, more beautiful galaxy.
These celestial teachers continue to defy understanding of the most advanced minds in our entire human history. Beyond our ability to physically describe them, we can glean an infinite amount of wisdom from the metaphors of how they function.
Their incomprehensible size and power may humble us. We may feel safe and secure in the fact that, like black holes, no one can truly know what lay within our hearts. We may learn to accept the destructive forces in our life as catalysts to transform us into something greater. Should we muster the courage to give up the old ways which organize our lives, we can rebuild our way of being in the world.
"If you want to be given everything, give everything up"
- Tao Te Ching, #22
