A Big Narrative

Credit: Alyson Hurt / NPR,
graphic by Andree Valley

Tiny zircon crystals found in a remote part of Western Australia known as Jack Hills are dated at 4.4 billion years old.

Looking at an info-graphic that accompanies an NPR article reporting on the dating of Earth's oldest rocks, I am struck by how comparatively recent humans arrived on the existential scene.

I am also struck by how willfully ignorant it is that many cultures deify a human-featured god in the form of (insert heralding trumpets) an adult male.

Perhaps what we share most deeply as humans is an unanswered need for a compelling existential narrative ― A Big Narrative.

I follow the narrative of cosmology and earth science. This narrative satisfies and reassures me as it unfolds. This narrative is a page-turner with potential plot points as new information arrives on the doorstep of scrutiny.

I am rapt.


REFERENCES

• At 4.4 Billion Years Old, Oz Crystals Confirmed As World's Oldest, NPR, Nell Greenfieldboyce, 24 February 2014.
• Oldest dated rocks, Wikipedia.