Marriage Moats- Higgs Boson

Published: Fri, 07/06/12

Marriage Moats

Caring for Marriage

My daughter traded cars with us last weekend so that her dad would have a chance to take hers to the mechanic. She called today to ask me if it was fixed yet. I paused.

"Sorry. It is still in the driveway."

"I love Dad," she said with a sigh. There was no residual sarcasm, or ridicule in her voice. She was just reminding herself that she loves him, in a dimension that cannot be flattened by his tendency to forget things.

Yesterday he called her just to share his excitement about the biggest triumph in physics in fifty years. Hosanna's degree is in physics, so he felt she would understand in a way I did not. He had tried to impart the magnitude of the discovery to me but I confess my enthusiasm was plastic.

"Great. A new particle. We didn't have quite enough, I guess," I sounded like my kids do when I say we are having stir fry for dinner. He held his tongue about my inability to absorb the magnitude of the situation.

I was touched by her knee jerk response about the car. I doubt whether those are the first three words to spring from my lips when John does not do what I asked.

My deer tick sized understanding of the Higgs boson is that this particle is the one that holds all the others together. Scientists knew it was there, but they could not find it. It is the magic ingredient for mass, gravity and inertia. Without it we would dissipate, lacking any pull toward each other. We would be unable to keep going.

It reminds me of another magical element... the one Hosanna managed to find even in the gap between what she had asked for and what she got.

Photo by Brita Conroy

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