Tonight I listened to the sound of an in-spiraling binary system of black holes colliding and emitting waves of gravitational radiation-culminating in a final chirp. The significance of actually being able to observe (and hear) ripples in space-time was not lost on me.
Like many wondrous moments such as this, it made me think of my dad and how excited he would be. We shared so many discussions on science and the latest discoveries. This one would've been no different.
On the shuttle back to my car, I stared out the window into the darkness and at the corner gas station we were passing. My eyes drifted upward and I caught sight of a star. In a way, I still share all these experiences with him. I can sense what his reaction would be, our excited conversation that would follow, the information and knowledge we would share with each other.
Sometimes I'm completely baffled by my level of elation at these things. Attending this physics lecture was far better than going to the movies, a club, or an amusement park. Of course, this one was covering the most incredible moment in physics in decades.
But I also know this wonder at the world was put there by my dad. I'm guessing he encouraged my curiosity at a very young age, but our shared interest in science gave us another platform on which to bond.
A representative moment is one that happened in my late teens. I would get to the mailbox before my dad, and would therefore have first dibs on his Discover magazine. One night, standing around the kitchen island, I explained in a frenzy how scientists were able to put/observe an electron in two places at once. When I stopped to allow for his reaction, he exclaimed "Carrie! Did you steal my new Discover magazine?!" But I think he was secretly happy that we had such a common interest.
I do not believe that we have souls, but I can tell you that my dad is always with me, especially when I'm out discovering the world. Having such a tight bond with another person ensures your reality can never be separated from who that person was and the experiences you shared. I never knew life before my dad, so I am unable to know life without him- I am always thinking about how he would've liked something, what he would've said, how he would've reacted. He's part of my daily life. I am experiencing these things for him, with him, and for myself.
With his curiosity transposed into mine, ears half crafted from his DNA sat in a darkened physics lecture hall, heard the 100,000 year old collision of two supermassive black holes and the subsequent rippling of space-time itself.
There is no one in the universe I would've rather experienced that with.
