The Narrative Image

One nice thing about the universe is that it pretty consistently follows rules. As hard as I have prayed for exceptions to the rules and as much as I would like the rules to submit or bend to my wishes, I guess I appreciate how they don’t. Consistent rules make science possible. When matter and energy act in a characteristic manner, it becomes possible to figure out what happens next. Careful observations lead to experiments which lead to greater understanding of rules which sometimes leads to new interesting ways to manipulate matter and energy. Observation: Golfer dies after lightning strike. Hypothesis: Sky-god hates golf, golfers, or golf clubs. Experiment: Initial attempts at making golf club shaped lightning rods. Observation: Excessive cat petting results in mini lightning bolts. Hypothesis: God may be a cat. Experiment: Worship cat and see if life improves. Careful scrutiny of disparate phenomena have resulted in today’s modern water-powered turbines which create mill...

(See also http://thenarrativeimage.blogspot.com/2007/07/lava-canyon-closed-until-further-notice.html ) It got darker and darker on the long hike back from Lava Canyon. It was really dark. Well…even darker than this. I had my trusty (though tiny) LED flashlight in hand, but I almost never use it unless the ground is steep and uneven. If you use a flashlight in the dark, you can only see the things illuminated in a cone of harsh light – a small field of vision by any measure. What you can’t see are all the predators, including the two legged kind, suddenly becoming all too aware of your location. I know it is counter-intuitive, but it somehow seems brighter to walk in the dark, feeling the breath of the trees on your cheek, hearing your footsteps reflecting off the tree-trunks and monitoring the rhythm of your heart and the cadence of your respiration. There were some stars out, and I could see them, but there were also high clouds floating by that mostly obscured the...