#0034 | space is a vacuum

Submitted by Courtney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Here’s Courtney’s story:

“A lady that speaks no English begins showing up to seminars about time and space.  It is apparent that she speaks no English because she informs the class as much when asked to state her name.  She can say a few key phrases explaining her situation, but her favorite four words are: “time,” “space,” “expansion,” and “black hole.”

She attends the class every week, carrying heavy, photo laden science books that she can’t understand because they are written in English.  She doodles on papers, and smiles broad incredible smiles during the course of each hour and a half.  When she does, she looks like a child being warmed by the sun.

It’s silly that she attends the class, but once, when the professor was explaining in heavy science vernacular something about this giant hole in the universe, she caught my eye. We stared at each other, both obviously feeling so lost, listening to a subject so clearly unknowable, regardless of language.  Silently we both sat together, feeling small, realizing that what we don’t know is limitless.”