The Solar Miracle

There would be no flowers were there no sun, and no one to appreciate either. Although many earthlings, somewhat irrational with the emotional pain of feeling small and disconnected, bicker and exploit each other and the earth, the incomprehensible miracle of power and ineffable grace we call the “Sun” glorifies the sky, inviting transcendence. Even though it shines from 93 million miles away, it’s radiance is too great to view directly. It’s generous light and warmth completely enfolds all living things. It’s as if a huge diamond or ruby were incandescing in the heavens.  Perched at the center of the crown of life itself, the solar King dictates the course of all living things on Earth.

“[Based on current energy usage by humans,] in one second the Sun produces over a million years’ worth of energy… ” -University of Wisconsin

According to the same article, every 18 hours the sun produces as much energy as would the act of burning a pile of coal the size of the entire earth.  In terms of nuclear explosive force, that’s 90 billion megatons per second worth of radiant energy.  The force of the best known nuclear explosion, the Little Boy unleashed on Hiroshima, was around 13 kilotons (about 1/7,000,000 th of the energy the sun emits each second).  There isn’t really any way for the mind to understand that amount of energy, much less the amount of energy the sun produces while reposed calmly in the firmament.  How to compare the efforts of man to render destruction, and the  immense power that the sun emits in peace and beauty?

Seeing the ways of the world, O Lord, my mind is puzzled; hence, I keep myself absorbed, day and night, with thought of thee. -Kabir

Whether or not you are a spiritually inclined individual you must admit there simply is no way to comprehend the profound majesty of the sun. Formulas, theories, comparisons, all fall far short of the present reality of that magnificent orb of power patiently traversing the sky.  New things are discovered about it constantly, it’s inner workings are still only partly understood, and it will undoubtedly continue forever to produce new understandings and befuddle existing ones.  To comprehend such immensity, and to say nothing of the immensity of the cosmos itself, there is nothing for it but to go towards the Source of things, the ultimate Center of existence itself, the Radiant Origin of “life, the universe, and everything,” to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams.  This isn’t about religion.  It’s just common sense.  We exist, which itself is beyond comprehension and ever unfolding in new and surprising ways.  In the reality of one’s existence is that Greatness and that Reason behind all that is.  There’s nothing else that makes sense.

At any rate, this is something we learn from the sun itself. We learn it also from the flowers, who are the sun’s representative children here on earth, and who are, as they express endless varieties of color and subtle geometry, little messengers of these principles.  They emerge with their beauty from a place beyond our perception or understanding (however evolved the science may be behind that biology) and proclaim great powers and laws operating within the core of things.  Just as does the sun.

Sun (Courtesy NOAA)

Calendula from our Rose Garden