Up Close And…

Last night was a supermoon. A number of friends posted beautiful pictures – the full moon in a clear sky over the sea, beside the church, through a tree…

Apparently, as the Moon orbits the Earth its distance to us varies by tens of thousands of kilometres. A supermoon occurs when the Moon is closest to the Earth, appearing 14% larger and 30% brighter than when it is furthest away from Earth.

Up close… bigger, brighter…

I went to the dentist yesterday. I saw a new dental hygienist I’d never met before. She was pleasant, polite and put me at my ease. She did a thorough job – questioning, observing, assessing, scraping, de-plaquing, cleaning, polishing, advising… She gave me five/six out of ten. Room for improvement!!

I’m usually sensitive to people invading my personal space… I was comfortable with a young woman, a stranger, looking, feeling, touching…!

Up close… professional, personal.

…Speaking of plaque…

A plaque was put up in Cambridge yesterday commemorating the work of Rosalind Franklin. The discovery of the DNA double helix structure is usually attributed to Francis Crick and James Watson. Yesterday’s celebration acknowledged Franklin’s pivotal role in the discovery.

Franklin was a remarkable scientist whose research work involved experiment, studying through microscopes, close to the cutting edge of knowledge and expertise.

Up close… insightful, inspirational

This morning I read of Jesus healing a blind beggar… His neighbours bring the now-sighted man to the religious leaders who question him. His parents get involved. Jesus challenges the religious leaders’ petty rules and interpretation of Jewish law; they challenge Jesus’ authority and integrity…

The ex-blind man didn’t understand the fuss; he could now see! Everything was beautiful… up close, bigger, brighter…

Jesus challenged the religious leaders. He accused them of being sighted people who were blind, invading their personal space of religious authority – up close professional, personal…

And me? Musing… I re-discover a Jesus who ‘discovers’ my DNA, revealing the hitherto unknown, with skill and precision – up close, insightful, inspirational.