Photography of
Skip Schiel
Light
March 9, 2007
by Skip Schiel
© All text copyright Skip Schiel, 2007
Light physical,
light metaphysical,
light internal,
light of Christ, Buddha, Mohamad,
light of wisdom,
the light of a thousands suns, bursting at once into the sky,
that is something, something like the splendor of the Mighty One, the shatterer of worlds, the coming of death,
said J Robert Oppenheimer, witnessing the world's first atomic explosion.
And now, today, this moment,
a light and voice within, saying,
Be smart, stop foolishness, let your little light shine.
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu (or Shiva?) is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
--Robert Oppenheimer - interviewed by NBC in 1965
Trinity atomic explosion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_site
If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty one...
I am become Death,
The shatterer of Worlds.
