Infinite Gravity and Infinite Mysteries

I've got the memory of a paramecium. Got all excited watching a program about black holes a couple of nights ago and champed to get the ideas it sparked down. Thought about it after I went to bed and now I can only remember half of what I intended.

It was about these equations. One of them was using quantum mechanics to try and figure out the gravity of the singularity at the center of the black hole. The gravitational pull is so great, as we all know and marvel at, that even a photon of light cannot escape - hence the black of black holes. Anyway, it was troubling to these theorists for the equations they came up with always equalled infinity. Not infinity once but infinity many times. Infinite gravity cannot be. Can it?

One black hole being studied had the mass of 143 million suns. That's huge yet it is a finite mass, even if it is pulling in every bit of matter within reach. How can there be infinite gravity? Does having a singularity always entitle the black hole to infinite gravity, like having a gold card, or is it just for the really big and showy ones?

Then there was this other equation, the one I've forgotten (damn!). The weird thing was it too equalled infinity. Even seeing the infinity symbol gave me goosebumps. It was like for all our smarts, all our advances in technology and mathematics and thought, we will never ever uncover the infinite mystery of, god I hate using the word God for all the baggage it's collected over the years, but there it is; Powers that Be is just too cumbersome, The Is sounds too much like a bad musical and the Creator is the first cousin to God. Still, you get the drift. For every layer uncovered, and every pat on the back for another mystery solved, another mystery appears.

On to a more mundane subject. Went to Murray's Art supplies yesterday and bought about a dozen Van Gogh oil pastels. They are so colourful and bright and pure I almost don't want to mess them up by using them. Unlike the student grade pastels I bought in the local newsagent these feel buttery and rich. Should make for some interesting effects. I've been so used to grinding the student sticks onto the board that using the Van Gogh's will be like driving a Rolls after a mini-moke.

Supposed to go to yoga tonight but there is a line of thunderstorms sweeping down from the northwest. We had a storm at 2am. I woke up with the rain and stayed awake until 5. Not sure why. Wasn't worried about the storm but with lack of sleep I've been a little bleary today. Lay down with Natalia, what a good bed cat! this afternoon. Couldn't sleep but it was nice just to lie there and listen to the birds and thunder and Natalia's purrs. The greatest gifts are in the small things.