Cosmic Reflections

Sitting together on the shoreline of Hilton Head Island, Milt asks my granddaughter Alex, “Should we dig to China?” The seven year old shoots him a look before answering, ”We can’t dig to China! There’s a molten core down there!”
The aeronautical/astronautical engineer is taken aback. Being a child is complicated in this century. There’s so much more to know now than back sixty years ago…not that we ever really believed we could dig to China…did we? And anyway, what would we do when/if we got there? Where did that ‘story’ come from in the first place? What was its purpose? And were Chinese children trying to dig down to us as well?
Perhaps the take away message is simply that the Middle Ages image of the earth as flat, with hell underneath, had been replaced by the realization that the earth is round…ergo you could reach the other side by going down through its center.
Now Milt is wondering how to explain to Alex that indeed he does know that the earth has a molten core and, in fact, is planning to tap into the earth’s energy by installing a geothermal pump that will provide our heat, hot water, and air conditioning in a clean, sustainable manner. Our goal is to get off natural gas, with its polluting coal fired production plants and the human and environmental devastation caused by hydraulic fracturing; it’s our way of protecting the planet for Alex. It is also our effort to live within the emerging new story of our era.
It’s complicated being a grandparent in this century!