The sound of speed. Or is it the speed of sound? Or, just how sound travels vs how light travels. On a recent trip to Hawaii, we experienced humpback whales feeding, fin slapping and breaching just off the coastline. You saw them before you heard them. When it was still, you would see them jump and a second later you would hear the massive water slap. Thanks to AI, here are some fascinating facts…unverified!
For example, if a whale jumps 1 kilometer away:
- Light from the event reaches your eyes almost instantaneously (in about 0.000003 seconds).
- Sound from the splash takes about 2.9 seconds to reach your ears.
This delay becomes more noticeable with increasing distance. The farther away the whale is, the longer the gap between seeing the jump and hearing the splash.
I hope you feel scientifically enriched. And WHAT does this have to do with Be the Best or anything to do with Dads and loss or Chris? Here’s the thinking. Both seeing the whale jump and hearing the jump were real. They just hit us at different times. I’ve said again and again time since Chris’ passing feels like yesterday. Literally. Then again, it feels like 1,000 years. AT THE SAME TIME! How real events ‘hit us’ or are absorbed by our minds or bodies, will be different.
In looking back on 15 years, one key thing that helped us get through was understanding that each of us (starting with our immediate family), needed to process and handle things differently. We all see/hear/feel the SAME EVENT differently.
I know I had to process that a lot as I would usually have ‘A PLAN’ that should be THE plan for everyone. It’s not. We all see and hear things differently. Watching the whales helped remind me of that.
Be The Best. 