It's a Need to Know Thing

night sky uncovered

stars don't die in secret now

we watch with sadness

I am participating unofficially in a week’s haiku challenge. Seven haikus a day, I suspect that many of the haikus I have produced possibly don’t count. They are not particularly nature based or end with a profound thought or philosophical observation.

This particular haiku was inspired by a BBC article on Facebook. ‘The stunning death throes of a star 2,600 light years away have been captured in unprecedented detail by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).’

Why sadness? It seems to me that there are some things in the world that do not need an observer. For a million years or more stars have been dying without an audience watching. They have been allowed to own their mystery and we have continued our lives not needing to know. Now we want everything uncovered. It’s as if things are not allowed to move through life without a camera being shoved in its face.

I watched a horse race one afternoon. There were jumps to negotiate as horse and rider navigated the course. The favourite won in the end but not by lengths. They were never in front, not until the very end. It was a nose perhaps, nothing more. The jockey had been dismissed as leaving the run in too late, but they had timed it to perfection. A presenter and a camera man followed the jockeys back to the changing room and as one of them mounted the steps he was asked about how he felt about losing. Disappointment was written across his face. Did the presenter not have sufficient imagination to work out how the losing jockey felt.

They do it everywhere, don’t they? At athletics meetings they pick up on the people that did not pass the finish line first and ask them how they feel. A man dives from a high board in a swimming event, messes up his entry into the water and as he pulls himself out of the pool a microphone is pushed in his face and he is asked how he feels. There is no recovery time, no chance to dry off or speculate on what went wrong. It’s just how do you feel.

I have a particular dislike of quiz shows where the contender goes into great detail to explain why he is opting to reject A or B. Why do I need to know his thought process? I suspect that who ever produces the show doesn’t want that straightaway answer. They want the journey to the right answer and maybe most of the people watching the show want that journey too.

We live in a world where things cannot happen without someone recording it. A road accident happens and people gather with heir mobile phones recording every action. I’d like to think they might be doing it so that they can share their perspective with the police later when asked, but I don’t think that really applies.

I think the pendulum of life has swung the wrong way. There are things that should not be secret and it’s good that lights get shone in dark places, but now it is too much, Everything is fair game and privacy has almost become a dirty word. For some, it comes with the territory. It’s the price the celebrity pays for being famous. But, even then, is there no part of their lives that still belongs to them?

We are surrounded by social media and an unspoken demand to share every aspect of life. Do you really need to know what I’m knitting or how the beans in the veggie pot are doing? And yet I tell you. I invite you into my life. I write and post a poem and if you don’t click ‘like’ I worry. You don’t need to know what my life is all about and yet I push it out there. You don’t need to know and I shouldn’t be looking for affirmation from you.

How do we extricate ourselves from the need to know everything or show everything? We have lost the ability to discern what we need to know and what we don’t.

I was hard of hearing for quite a while before I got my hearing aids. There were pupils in my classes at school who designated themselves as interpreters. They would repeat the answers given by other pupils, increasing the volume somewhat. It was not a satisfactory way to teach a class. I had a hearing test. I had always assumed that the problem was the tinnitus and if that was not present I would be fine. It was not so. The first time I wore the hearing aids was in a café. I tell you every sound was audible – the shuffle of a menu, the scrape of a chair, teeth chewing on a scone. These were not close noises, but across the room. I could hear everything that was happening behind closed doors – in the kitchen, in the bathroom and even on the pavement outside. Then, after a week or two, the brain made a decision that, yes it could hear everything, but every sound was not needed to be heard. It got selective in what it chose to tune into and other sounds were ignored. I stopped climbing the wall in frustration.

We need to rediscover discernment. Not everything needs to be seen. Not everything needs to be on display. We have the technology to do all sorts of things but that doesn’t mean we have to.

A poem written a while ago –

In Praise of Mystery

Let us not

measure the world in feet and inches

lay it carefully on an operating table

pour facts down its throat and put it to sleep

shave off the grass and the trees

drain the rivers, cut into the mountains

define it by its minerals and chemicals

push the visible beneath the microscope

acknowledge only the verifiable

Let us not

unravel the mystery

Not all questions need an answer

So what do I want from myself? I don’t want to kill off my curiosity. I don’t want to stop learning. But, I do want to give things space. I want the stars to die in peace and privacy, watched and mourned only by the Creator. I don’t want to invade and poke around in things that really are not my business.

The beans in their pot are on the patio table to stop the slugs eating them and I’m knitting socks. You needed to know that, right?