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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN#/ISBN# issue/book “War of Water” cc&d, v282 (the April 2018 issue) Order this as a 6"x9" paperback book:  |
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The Cosmos Cry Maria
Michael Ceraolo
That’s Ma-RYE-a, not Ma-RE-a
Now that that’s out of the way,
we can get started
I was open to the cosmos’ call
from an early age for a number of reasons:
first,
“a love of mathematics,
seconded
by my sympathy with my father’s love
for astronomical observation”
and lastly
growing up on the island of Nantucket,
a place where “people generally
are in the habit of observing the heavens”
(“The Aurora Borealis
is always a pleasant companion;
a meteor seems to come like
a messenger from departed spirits;
and the blossoming of trees in the moonlight
becomes a sight looked for with pleasure”)
There are many things in which I was
the first of my sex,
or the first American
of my sex, to accomplish
I won’t recite those achievements here;
you can find them on my Wikipedia page,
or many other places online,
or in any of the biographies of me
I am proud of them because
they constitute part of who I am,
but I want to talk of other things here
in the hopes that all,
but especially girls,
will receive all the encouragement they need
to follow their talents wherever they lead:
“I should like to urge upon young women
a course of solid scientific study
in some one direction for two reasons
First: the needs of science
Second: their own needs”
I was a computer when computers were human,
painstakingly calculating the future path of Venus
because knowing the exact path was important
for the navigators of that time,
while shaking my head at the fact that
I was given Venus because I was a woman
(For myself and others “it is better
to crack open a geode than to match worsteds
It is better to spend an hour
watching the habits of ants than in
trying to put up the hair fantastically”)
On October 1, 1847
I discovered a comet,
prosaically designated C/1847 T1
or Comet 1847 VI
(someone needs to consult Urania
when deciding what to name comets:
“A mathematical formula
is a hymn of the universe”
but
“It is not all mathematics . . .
it is somewhat beauty and poetry”)
All my life I challenged,
in my numerous published writings
and with the threat of a good example,
the notion that work would kill women,
the notion that educating women
was somehow harmful to their health
(“can the study of truth do harm?”)
And when I learned I was paid less
than the male professors at Vassar,
I fought for pay equity
Given the tenor of the times
I didn’t achieve said equity,
but did close the pay gap somewhat
I and some of my students traveled
to observe the total solar eclipse
of July 29, 1878,
and
stayed home at Vassar to photograph
the rare transit of Venus in December 1882
I believed then and I believe now that
“We shall grow larger if we accustom
ourselves to contemplate great objects—
we shall broaden with the effort to grasp great truths,
even if we fail to envision them . . .”
And
I would like to offer a few precepts,
not restricted to scientific study
but definitely applicable there,
that I hope I have always
done my best to live up to:
“Question everything”
“the more we see,
the more we are capable of seeing”
“Study as if you were going to live forever;
live as if you were going to die tomorrow”
and lastly:
“Be honest—
avoid the temptation to see
what you are expected to see”
