Holes (Kid Stuff)

Holes are a deep subject - akin to a well.  Now there are doughnut holes, fishing holes, button holes, blow holes, key holes, post holes, air holes, sink holes, pin holes, mole holes, pot holes, and fox holes.  Peep holes, man holes, chuck holes, cubby holes, and pigeon holes.  There are holes-in-one, holes in the roof, and Jamie Lynne is forever shooting holes in my theories.  Simply put, there are a whole lot of holes. 

But for the moment, let us ponder just three: black, white, and worm.  Now beware.  We’re about to blunder into the subject of spacetime – a mathematical model in physics which combines time and space into a single interwoven continuum.  Pretty deep stuff and I’ll be the first to admit that I really have no idea what the vast majority is all about.  Especially the math part.  But maybe you’re somewhat like me and have yet to reach that age when a boy becomes a man.  And if so, perhaps you’ll venture with me into a nebulous reality where a wiser man would never tread.  To look in ways that an eye of greater experience, tempered by the hard knocks of reality, would never allow the mind to scurry, much less dawdle.   And for a brief while, view the world not through the practical lens of the scientist but with the quizzical eye of a treasure hunter.

First, let’s look at black holes.  These are areas of spacetime where the gravitational effects are so strong that anything entering is infinitely trapped.  Even light is squeezed increasingly tight by the darkness.  Next come white holes.  As the name would suggest, these regions of spacetime are the reverse of black holes.  Purely hypothetical, the province of these areas is like that of a fountain - matter and light continually flowing forth.  But nothing enters.  And lastly, let’s throw worm holes into the mix.  No, not those in apples.  Here we have a feature that links two separate points in spacetime.  A “passageway” capable of connecting immense distances as well as short.  Not to mention universes other than our own and points in time either past or future.

Wow.  OK then. There we have a bit of other-worldly scientific theory if not the foundations for some good science fiction.  But the intent here is not to debate the merits and/or deficiencies.  The question is:  what, if any, applies?  And, if so, how?  And of course, there are no firm or concrete answers to those questions.  But for fun, let’s theorize.  Take a look at a few pictures:

So, how do those seemingly random pictures relate to our quest for treasure?  Within the scope of reality, not much.  But taken metaphorically and with some degree of imagination these very tangible landmarks suddenly become gateways into other dimensions of our search.

It is here that it becomes helpful to let the mind’s eye wander and think once again as a ten year old.  Feel free to poke a few holes in these thoughts.

Let’s imagine that various clues, sprinkled like the proverbial bread crumbs, have led us to a specific location (point “A”).  The pathway is constant and sure.  But upon our arrival at point “A”, the trail goes cold.  Ice cold.  Except for a feature that could be construed as a black hole - physical in nature, symbolic in meaning.  Oh, Oh!  We’re too close.  We’re being pulled in.  As hard as we try to claw our way out, we continue to slide down and into the vertex.  Faster and faster.  Tighter and tighter, the pressure builds.  Then in the blink of an eye, we hit the worm hole.  We’re flipped and spun.  And we explode through the apex on the opposite side and out past the base.  Catching our breath, we notice that this spot has points of reference that are parallel in nature to those at point “A”.  And it is at this subsequent locale where the clues once again spew forth allowing the search to continue.    

One final musing.  The previous reverie dealt with the abstraction of space, but our holes are fused to the concept of time as well.  What about the past?  And the future is even more problematic.  Here too, the mind of a child helps rather than hinders.  Because there are no rules that demand we stay in the here and now.  Perchance, our veritable worm hole will deposit us not in the physical world at all.  But rather something more abstract - a chapter in a famous novel, a scene from a blockbuster movie, a great piece of artwork, or even a cartoon.  Perhaps a classic sci-fi thriller will transport us back to the future.

Well, all that wasn’t too hard.  The tricky part is making it all come together in reality.

What say you?  An ace in the hole?  Or bottomless well?