PHRANTONE 12-2023

August 1, 2023

Dear Phran Klub,

How crazy is dark matter?

In case you’re not familiar, the vast majority of everything everywhere — stars, tree frogs, smushed-up cups in the gutter — is made of something we can barely detect. Because it doesn’t interact with light, astrophysicists have officially labeled this 95% of the universe “dark matter” and “dark energy.”

Consider: The world’s best scientists are telling us that 95% of the smoothie on the counter in front of us is neither fruit nor oat milk. The blood and flesh that the smoothie will soon convert to are likewise made up mostly of something other than atoms. The brains we are using to exchange and process ideas about it are far less quantum than phantom.

What the actual heck?!

Emotions researcher Brené Brown likes to say, “We love to believe we are rational, thinking people who, on occasion, feel some emotion. On the contrary,” she says, “We are feeling beings who, on occasion, think.”

The proportion flip feels familiar.

As an artist, my work is to draw a frame around the world. You have a unique and majestic mind. The enclosed tail-wagging fridge magnet is an invitation to point it in the direction of this startling and delightful mystery.

Frankie with a P-H
(and a whole lot of ?)