Suspended in Time: Loosening girdles and deepening weights, and the Grey Lady of the New York Times

One effect of having watched Xanadu a couple nights ago is I have had those songs as ear worms at various times.  The most persistent today is a song called "Suspended in Time" - it just keeps popping in, particularly the chorus which goes:

But how can our love succeed
A miracle is what we need
And so I appeal to you
To keep me suspended in time with you
Don't let this moment die
I get a feeling when I'm with you
None of the rules apply
But I know for certain
Goodbye is a crime
So love if you need me
Suspend me in time

 

I've bolded two lines that began to capture my attention the umpteenth time I listened to this chorus, and then, probably because they have been in my posts recently for reasons I can't fully explain, Black Holes came bounding into my mind as a potential reason for why I was becoming fixated on those lines.

In 'researching' (I use the word lightly - it was more like quickly looking into...) Black Holes for some of my previous posts (see my post "Black holes, Rabbit holes and walking through stars" for when I first started to write about Black Holes in any degree of thought), both Time and the Laws of Physics were major components of what I was reading.

Specifically, that Black Holes, due to their extreme gravity, distort time to a very significant degree.  The closer one approaches the Black Hole, the more distorted time becomes as measured on a relative basis vs. someone else who is not as close.  This concept is popularized in the movie I mentioned in that aforementioned post, Interstellar.  In the clip from that post, Cooper makes the comment that their slingshot maneuver skimming close to the Black Hole would cost them 51 years.  But, he and Amelia only aged the couple minutes it took them to pull off the maneuver.  The 51 years was measured as if one was back on Earth, so everyone else back on Earth biologically aged by that much, while Cooper and Amelia did not.

The movie explores these kind of strange situations packaged within the overall story of trying to get a population off of the Earth and to another place.

Anyway, these concepts would be taken to even more extreme levels in the event one actually enters or is pulled into a Black Hole.  In such a case, as one approaches the Event Horizon, to an outside observer, Time would appear to stand still - to become suspended - as they viewed either an object or person enter the Hole.  At some point, it would appear that they would be frozen (again, based on what I have read).  However, to the object or person itself, time for them would pass normally, and they would continue on with their 'spaghettification' process as they traveled to and were mashed into the Singularity (or something like that).

Further, while not fully known and very theoretical, it seems the laws of physics begin to break down, or are pushed to such extremes that they are hard to visualize, imagine, or make much sense of inside of a Black Hole.  I have read enough theories of what that looks like to know I am out of my depth in explaining or summarizing further, but needless to say, things get weird, I guess.

But, these points around Time and the radical altering or breaking of laws or rules bring me back to the lyrics of that chorus.  In both lines, it is in the place where the two Beings are together that they are suspended in time, and normal rules do not apply.  In looking at those (somewhat creatively), we may have an allusion or reinforcement to this theme that I have been exploring in other posts:  In that Faramir enters something like a Black Hole (the Rabbit Hole) in order to re-join with Eowyn, with Black Holes at least being theorized as the places where one would become suspended in time, and in which normal rules do not apply.

Trust me, if you told me even a month ago I would be writing even one post about Black Holes, I would have been scratching my head trying to figure out exactly why that would be the case, and here we have yet another post on this concept.  But, I've been going where the moment takes me and as crazy as it sounds, this has seemed to be a topic at least worth chasing down to see what there is to it (whether this means actual Black Holes are involved, or rather concepts derived from this thinking are, I have no idea).

But, I have expressed much of the above, or at least theorized on it, in previous posts, so why am I writing again on this?  Well, I had another thought or connection just this evening that made me think that yet again there could be something to this, and it also helps me get more specific on one of those dreams I explored in that 3-part series:  The Anchorwoman, which was Dream #2.

In that post, I quoted the following 'prophecy' or understanding of the far-future fate of Faramir and Eowyn (called Jared/ Zhera' and Izilba)

The winds and waves took them withersoever, day and night, and by long store of provisions they were comfortably housed, if uneasy about their fates, to them known only dimly, but what was made known was this:  Zhera' [Jared-Faramir] would enlarge the girdle of Arda, and Izilba deepen the weights depending therefrom.

In discussing that quote, I wrote that Faramir would enlarge the girdle through events through would transpire with the Stones.  Following those events, I believe that multiple worlds will be open to various groups of people, at various times, including Valinor, Eressea #1 and #2, and Numenor.  "Earth" will come to mean something very different, and be a much 'larger' place.

That is Faramir.  For Eowyn, I said something like the anchor meant both her pulling together the news that will be transmitted through the Stones as well as extending a line of anchor to us in this world.  However, I think there is a more specific meaning, and it has to do with Time, and thus potentially these Black Holes/ Portals/ Whatever is being referred to.

My 'solution' came to me tonight in the form of a clock, and it really seemed to click for me, so I wanted to to log it (at least in very rough, spur of the moment thinking).  The clock I specifically thought of or clearly visualized was a pendulum clock.   A grandfather clock like the one pictured below would be an example of one of these clocks:

Pendulum clocks are mechanical, and through a combination of gears, an 'escapement wheel', the pendulum rod with weight, and gravity, they can keep very accurate time.  Apparently, up until the 1940s, the most accurate clock in the world was a pendulum clock called the Shortt-Synchronome Clock (a name which caught my attention due to all of these 'syncs' noted in various places - a name which itself has roots in time).

Anyway, per my very fast look into these clocks just now, the set up is pretty simple, even if the mechanics can get quite complicated to get the extreme time accuracy that some of them are able to produce.

The two things that will primarily impact the time measurement of these pendulum clocks are gravity (of course), and the pendulum, specifically its length.  Gravity acts on the pendulum, creating an oscillation between kinetic and stored energy (a similar principle, recall, in my Slinky dream and my explorations around that).  A pendulum of a given length will swing at a set interval given a constant gravity, and this fact is used to have the hands of a clock progress at a set pace (that is oversimplified, I am sure, but good enough for my analogy).

Changing the weight of the pendulum itself actually does nothing to how the clock measures time, since gravity will generate the same acceleration regardless.  You must either change the force of gravity, or change the length of the pendulum itself.  For example, if you were to shorten the length of the pendulum, 'time' or the clock would move faster, holding all other things constant, since the pendulum will complete its cycle faster.  Conversely, lengthening the pendulum would make 'time' move slower.

So, as with earlier in the case of the Black Hole we have gravity itself impacting the rate of Time, here we have imagery of the second way (figuratively) that Time can be manipulated:  the lengthening of the lever that pushes it along.

I am focused here on that pendulum clock imagery, because in my opinion (as of just a couple hours ago), this could potentially go back to the statement regarding the 'fate' of Eowyn, in that she will 'deepen the weights depending therefrom".  To 'deepen' means, I think in this case, to make lower or longer from some point.  To our analogy, this would mean making the pendulum longer, and thus impacting Time (making it go slower, just as discussed above with the Black Hole).

Interestingly, "depending" was originally used to mean "hanging from something", but isn't really used that way anymore (except in this example we have from Words of the Faithful).  This conveniently gets back to the title of that Xanadu song "Suspended in Time".  To "suspend" something is to also hang it.

In summary, I am not 100% sure what that cryptic phrase of Eowyn "deepening weights" means, but based on this train of thought, I do have reason to believe it may have something to do with Time, as well as tie into these other strange thoughts relating to space, Black Holes, and all sorts of bizarre things. 

Joseph Smith quoted God (the "Almighty) in D&C 84 as saying that when Zion and 'Israel' are redeemed, they will sing a new song that will celebrate both Satan being bound, and Time not being a thing any longer.  So, perhaps this all fits into that:

 

Until all shall know me, who remain, even from the least unto the greatest, and shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and shall see eye to eye, and shall lift up their voice, and with the voice together sing this new song, saying:

The Lord hath brought again Zion;
The Lord hath redeemed his people, Israel, 

According to the election of grace,

Which was brought to pass by the faith

And covenant of their fathers.

The Lord hath redeemed his people;
And Satan is bound and time is no longer.

The Lord hath gathered all things in one.

The Lord hath brought down Zion from above.

The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath.

The earth hath travailed and brought forth her strength; 

And truth is established in her bowels;

And the heavens have smiled upon her;

And she is clothed with the glory of her God;

For he stands in the midst of his people.

Glory, and honor, and power, and might,
Be ascribed to our God; for he is full of mercy,

Justice, grace and truth, and peace,

Forever and ever, Amen 

The Grey Lady and the New York Times

Another name for Eowyn-Izilba in Doug's stories was the Grey Lady.  Thingol calls her this when he has a conversation with the spirit of Nienor (as he goes to collect her in order to return her to her home on Valinor).

I was reminded this morning that the nickname for the New York Times is the Grey Lady as well.  The nickname came about for two reasons:  first it used to only print in black and white, and second it had a very careful, deliberate approach to journalism.  

Today, I guess it depends on your own views, but as for me I am not sure the New York Times still earns the name of Grey Lady.  It not only prints in color now (its first color print on the front page occurred in 1997), but I don't think you could classify its news as careful, deliberate, or accurate.

In any case, we have references to 'black and white', New York, even "Times" (referring to Time), which all have come up plenty of times here and other places.

And finally, there is the news itself that she as Anchorwoman will present.  "All the news that's fit to print" is the slogan of the New York Times, and I think that will be a reality with the stories that come from Eowyn and others via the link established with Faramir.  

And lastly, as I went to add the link to the video for the song "Suspended in Time" just now and the song was playing as I was copying it in, the word "appeal" stuck out to me.  I looked it up really quickly, and Etymonline's definitions include "to call" or "to summon", which have come up before in my writing on these Stones.