Relativity

Everything is Relative

“Einstein revealed that time and space themselves are elastic and mutable, that they exist in relationship with unfolding life.  They are part of the show themselves.  Time, space, matter, gravity, and light are all intertwined.  They curve and collapse and change in response to each other.”

                                  Krista Tippett (in Einstein’s God)

“There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

                                  Albert Einstein

         I have experienced Einstein’s theory of relativity during the past two weeks.  No, not mathematically, Lord knows, but as a living, breathing reality.  When one travels, even when the terrain is familiar, one gains a different perspective.  I know North Carolina pretty well, having lived there for part of my life.  I’ve made many trips to Chapel Hill where my former mother and father-in-law lived.  I thought I knew how to get around there, but I got lost more than once.  Things change over time.  Being differently oriented in space can do weird things to one’s sense of direction.  The street names were familiar, but I couldn’t seem to get their relationship to one another right.  I did a bit of driving blind only to discover that I was lost in an area I knew well; I was just coming from a different direction than the usual one.  Has that ever happened to you?  Lost in space and trying to make sense of the signs?  It’s a little like being in a dreamscape--where you know the place but nothing is where it’s supposed to be.  As a result of being lost, I learned a good deal about Chapel Hill that I didn’t know before. 

         I also experienced the relativity of time—island time.  It’s different from city time.  Especially on Ocracoke Island, time and pace are slower and more nuanced than they are in the wider world.  There’s not a lot of rushing around, or watching the clock, or doing things asap.  People there sort of ooze around, ease up to it; they get around to it when it feels right.  It takes a while to reset your clock to island time.  One spends the first couple of days thinking, ‘what on earth is wrong with these people.’  But soon enough, you feel yourself oozing and easing too.  For a fast paced person such as I, getting used to island time was a minor miracle in itself.  I was up at five, ready for coffee and breakfast—nothing opened until eight.  Island time is relative.

         I choose to see everything as a miracle.  Standing in a live-oak forest in the quiet of the day, with the warmth of the sand caressing my feet, and the sunlight creating wavering mirages over the land, one could believe in almost anything.  I may as well have been in Narnia.  I half-way expected to see fairy folk, or nymphs.  I am so grateful for that vision of the world.  I will hold on to it for as long as I possibly can.  I would love to hear your stories of 'relativity.'

                                  In the spirit,

                                  Jane