I’m aging. I love too many people whose health and wellbeing is too uncertain. I want to write about too many things, each one requiring too much time and too many brains. I take on too many assignments and some of the most important are outside my talents and over my head. I can’t keep this up indefinitely but I never want to stop but some foreseeable day I’ll have to. So most days I’m preoccupied and touchy; nights I wake up in a panic. I’m pressured, I’m stressed, I’m distressed. I’m reasonably sure I’m not alone in this.
One day I complained about all this to an old physicist. He didn’t seem interested in my complaints and apparently changed the subject: “Do you know what critical opalescence is?”
I didn’t and he explained. Raise the pressure enough and drop the temperature enough on most gases, and they have a phase transition. That is, they’re not gas any more, they’re liquid; they’ve changed state. During the process, at one delicate point when the gas is no longer exactly a gas, patches in it — big and little, here and there — are sort-of liquid. At this so-called critical point, these patches reflect light differently, each patch a different color. And for a minute, exactly the way opals do, the gas shimmers and turns iridescent. The old physicist said this was called “critical opalescence.”
I took a minute to figure it out. He hadn’t changed the subject at all. It’s a consolation, he was saying, maybe something to hope for, that when things get critical you change state, you shine a little.
Credit: Assignment_Houston_One, by sulla55 on Wikimedia Creative Commons
You’ve put your finger on it and defined my own state of mind (and that of many other Boomers, I suspect) to perfection, Ann. Beautiful post.
A compliment from a respected colleague is a joy forever, its loveliness increases. I thought of you while I was writing it, actually.
An old cynic thinks “yeah, but this critical opalescence is merely a transient step in the inevitable entropy.” But the young optimist lurking within him counters “So what?” I’ve had several C.O.s so far over 60-odd years – looking forward to the next one!
Oh lordy the cosmic metaphors are multiplying left and right! I love this comment.
I followed the love of the queen with promises of knowledge of the universe to here and your opalescence, beautiful post loved it more of that.
So last night I was in bed not sleeping and having all these vivid remenissions of my most treasured moments in life thus far. Not directing my thoughts
just flashes of this and that, iridescent chills and shimmering goosebumps with each memory that came my way, tears of sorrow tears of joy
and it dawned on me, I was having an opal moment, your cherished memories are like an opal, your life’s collection the shimmering gem
THANK YOU!!!
This is beautiful. Will read lots more on your blog…found this through your article about the plaster of paris casts from pompeii.