20160322 (sensate)

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for 03/16/16--Phoenix or Holy Spirit?

As an avid follower of APOD

(Astronomy Picture of the Day),

One of my treasured bookmarks,

And a professed Christian, I 

Reacted to their recent photo 

For March 16 with a totally

Less-than-sophisticated, “That’s

The Holy Spirit hovering over

The North Pole,” rather than

Their acceptably secular image

Of a Phoenix rising. My reaction

Astonished but did not surprise 

Me. As a lifelong Christian with

An early Catholic parochial

Upbringing, long familiar with

The many depictions of the 

Holy Spirit as a dove poised

Above the heads of many a

Saint, if I hadn’t thought of 

The Third Person of the Trinity

Would have been more surprising.

And as a student of psychology

I also understand there is nothing

Mystical in these resemblances.

“Jesus Appears on a Slice of Toast”

Probably happens somewhere in

The world maybe once or twice

A day, given how much toast is

Prepared and whether the consumer

Looks at the slice before buttering

It. Seeing the patterns we do is a

Remarkable feature of our visual

Perception somewhat similar to 

My hearing yesterday “Michael,

Row the Boat Ashore” playing

From St. Patrick’s chimes at noon

For St. Patty’s Day.  I’m not that

Far away (two blocks) but depending

On the wind I could have heard

Some sounds better than others

And just filled in the blanks—

Which is how stereotyping works.

The evolutionary benefit of 

Hearing a sound and thinking

“Sounds like a tiger following me

In the jungle,” makes us far likelier

To survive and pass on our genes.

In fact if you’ve ever taken a 

Hearing test (as so many of us

Husbands have in response to

Their spouses urging, “Can you

Not hear me?”) you’ll observe

The boundary for hearing the

Sound is set not when we hear

Definitively but when we more

Often than not report hearing it.

Another linked phenomenon of

Perception is synesthesia in

Which subjects report certain

Musical notes, or alphabetic

Letters as having a visual color

Component—not that they see

C sharp as "yellow" but sense it

With repeated consistency. In

Fact such synesthetes report 

Thinking everyone perceives

That way until specifically

Addressing the issue with a 

Person not similarly affected.

I’ll not know what tone my dog

Hears with his greater range.

Just the same as APOD must

Render radio astronomy pictures

Within the color spectrum we 

Can see. Their choices are 

Arbitrary for such images unlike

Their exaggeration of spectral

Colors which correspond to 

Glowing Hydrogen or Helium.

Those standing to see the aurorae

A thousand miles away from

Reykjavik, would not have seen

Either the Phoenix or the Holy 

Spirit, so what you see is not

Necessarily what you get. Pass

The toast, please, I just can’t

Bring myself to butter the Lord.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016