Things I Don't Understand

I really wanted to title this one, "Things I Don't Understand and Have No Chance of Ever Figuring Out Even Though I Am a Curious Person."

But that seemed like a little overkill.

And then I thought I could name it, "Things I Have No Idea I Do Not Know." Too many negatives. Confusing.

So it's the simple "Things I Don't Understand."
Because there's a lot, I mean a LOT, that I don't understand.

What got me cogitating on this was an article about an amateur astronomer. Here's a brief description of his discovery:

On September 20, 2016, Victor Buso was testing his new camera by taking a picture of NGC 613, which is about 80 million light-years from Earth. Over the course of 90 minutes, he took several 20-second time-lapse photographs, and that’s when the light from the supernova reached Earth. (This is where I would annotate the publication from which I got the above description except I do not have any idea how to footnote... just one of the many things I don't know and also one that I am not going to pursue. Apologies to "I Fucking Love Science.")

Back to my cogitating. 

Okay, first of all this man was photographing NGC 613. I have no idea what that even means but clearly he not only knew what it was but where to find it. Oh, and also, NGC 613 is 80 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS FROM EARTH! I can't even comprehend that number. Or distance. Or time. I'm fairly certain I never will. But it's fun for me to think about. 

Dave once told me that there are more stars than there are grains of sand IN THE WORLD. And here's the thing. I think he's right. Except that it can't possibly be. Because I can't even begin to understand how to wrap my brain around that. 

Dave has also, with his infinite patience, tried numerous times to explain to me the idea that if you go fast enough you can get younger. Right. Uh-huh. 

On a non-space related note, I can pick up my iPhone and punch ten numbers and suddenly I am talking to my daughter in LA or my son in SF. I mean, come on. Who understands that? How is that even possible? How can there even be enough combinations of those ten numbers to allow everyone who has a phone number to have a phone number? 

Ok, math. Just in general. Not something I have ever or will ever understand well at all. 

Random things I don't understand: 

*how come when you hear your own voice talking it doesn't sound the same as when you hear your voice in a recording?

*why does toast taste different than bread? It's not just a different texture--it actually tastes completely different.

*how does music come from a needle moving through grooves?

*how do cheetahs communicate to one another how they are going to work together to kill the zebra that one of them alone cannot take down? 

*how does DNA pass along what you look like? It's so tiny. How can it have that much information?

I could go on and on. And on. 

I'm not frustrated by my lack of understanding (although I think occasionally Dave might be frustrated with my lack of understanding, but that's only because I keep making him try to explain that speed/time thingy). It's actually, for me, fun. I like finding out things I don't know because I like learning (or trying to learn). I don't ever want to stop being curious. 

Years ago, during the George W. Bush administration, I read a quote from then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He was speaking at a DoD news briefing regarding WMD's and Iraq. Here's what he famously said:

   "There are knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know."

At the time, I thought it was a ridiculous quote. I mocked it, and him. But now I get it. And it pains me to say that in retrospect Donald Rumsfeld was a very wise man.

My hope, for me as well as for both my kids, is that the world always has more than enough knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.















I don't know what I don't know. Don Rumsfeld