APW: The Golden Record

The 3 year anniversary of my best friend's passing is coming up March 26th. 
This post is for all those who Love Z-Mo,
And everyone else who can relate to missing someone as time presses on.

Z-Mo Reflection + The Golden Record

It’s unbelievable to imagine 3 years passed

Can it be real? Time?

“I pack my belongings and I head to the coast”

We experience such diverse, enduring journeys,

Separately, while we orbit the same sun,

“A spec on a spec on a spec”

In this immense vastness, how extraordinary,

What a single person’s life can mean to you.

            “All the people, they say”

Time to zoom out, Grow a bit cosmic

Then sink down to the power of a single seed. 

            “Is there anybody going to listen to my story?”

I learned recently of the Voyager’s “The Golden Record.”  A message to outer space from Earth: encapsulating the culture and history of this Blue Planet in the Milkyway Galaxy, a glimpse of human’s essence through language and music.  An eternally romantic idea, projected to float to an anonymous recipient like a message in a bottle drifting across an infinite and expanding ocean. 

I was approached the other day, “what would you add to the golden record?”  What message would you share to the unknown that would reflect the ‘human experience.’  Now, I’m not the person for this task.  I’m a romantic and a skeptic. I try not to let that inherent contradiction cloak the magical workings of the planet.  I simply don’t understand how the human ego balances into ecosystem homeostasis.  So while I may find the notion of the golden record arrogant, I’m also enthralled by its intention and ingenuity.

So my first thought, with the Golden Record, was to dismiss people.  Consider the evolution of this planet, how freaking unbelievable and awesome were the dinosaurs! Where else in the universe could these beautiful creatures have survived and thrived for millions of years (to be erased, it is recently postulated, within a few hours).

Beyond that, think of all the incredible ecosystems and extremes and all the organisms who have adapted to living below sea level in deserts with little to no rainfall, to the arctic circle, to the high mountains of Nepal, to the jungles in the Amazon.  Then I thought of the 6 billion organisms living in a tablespoon of soil, approximately half of which is airspace!  Such incredible miracles, although if you’re an extra-terrestrial traveler happening upon the Milkyway exit, perhaps this biodiversity is not so fantastic to them as it appears to us.  Now it is time that I offer credit to where it’s due, and recognize the only reason I have an inklink of comprehension of the past, is through human’s unswerving pursuit of knowledge, philosophy and “going deep.”

So I reconsider what to draw the extra-terrestrial attention towards.  A unique trait of humans is the ability to interact with its environment with both wisdom and compassion.  I would try to convey the miracle of human will power and belief.  Though this opportunity, my life and planetary understanding is shaped by the enormous advancements in human intellect and technology: i.e. Tesla’s Coils, Einstein’s Relativity, Copernicus dispelling the earth-centric model, and so-on.  I would faster turn to the Polynesians finding the Hawaiian Islands, in sporadic waves beginning in the 3^rd century up until the 18^th. From the process of harvesting hardwoods and building double hulled canoes, to sailing across thousands of miles following HŌKŪLEA, navigating the guiding lights of the night sky.  These “ancient” practices brought many ships on many journeys across the seas to repeatedly end up on this tiny isolated island chain, thousands of miles away from a significant landmass.   I would share this event in history, for it may evoke empathy from the space travelers as a microcosm of the event that connected them with the golden record.

I would also include a number of human events attached with emotions:

-       a child’s first step into the ocean

-       the first time a child discovers death

-       how that notion evolves throughout one’s life.

-       Laughing ‘til it hurts

-       what it feels like to be loved

-       what it feels like to love

-       how it feels to have that taken away

-       how some cultures bury their secrets into the cracks of tree bark

-       how others sit still for most of their lives

-       how some hoist umbrellas when water begins to fall from the sky

-       How others give thanks for the sky nourishing their plants

-       How humans can remain faithful, loyal and loving despite all odds

 And I would show an image of someone lying down in a bed of fallen leaves, holding hands with another, watching the sunset, fading into stars, into the morning sky, a beautiful view of a day on Earth.

We all respond to this upcoming time of year differently.  We have all been affected differently.  Still, we share this incredible privilege, and host gratitude of having known such a special young man.  One who has drastically altered the course of my life in the most positive way.  And I am so lucky for all the reminders.  The look-a-likes, the flashbacks, the songs we blasted on pizza night, the plants we harvested, seeds we sown and the soil we double dug on the day it never rains.  The trip to the Source Water, posting up the amethyst on the bar at the Sierra Nevada’s Taproom.  I swear Zack’s days were more exciting than some of my months.  The ripple effect is unending.

There is one more story to share, for you, for me, and for the Golden Record.  It was one of those moments that passed without thinking about how many times I would return to it in my memory because of its casual nature.    Zack and I were working in the banana trees behind the Roadside Farmstand across the creek, a landscape now unrecognizable.  And we came across a heliconia plant with its flower in bloom.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Until Zack pulled back the bracts and revealed these metallic blue seeds.  He held them in his hands, staring at them for several minutes, marveling their color and shape.  In awe that nature could produce this rare color when no other part of the landscape resembled a similar shade or tone, on the plant itself, or any other plant or animal on the windward slope of Haleakala.  Humans are so adaptable.  We get hung-up, attached.  Life passes us by and we take each day and breath for granted.  Yet a moment like this can occur, and we pause.  I am reminded of the law that nothing is created nor destroyed, only changed in form.

I would share this story on the golden record.  His face, his marvel, his smile, his joy, his unbounding love.  What a gift that would be to receive.  I am so grateful and I miss you so much.