Nature Abhors a Vacuum

And we are back with responsibility for yourself and your behaviour. Which also brings us back to the ‘Missy’ comment, from my father, to my sister and what resulted. After a moments pause, my had sister replied, ‘I didn’t slam the door. I pushed it shut… (pause) firmly”. The temperatures began to rise between them both almost immediately, and as mentioned it was never a good idea. ‘Don’t you back answer me”, was the standard comment (often uttered by my father when we disagreed with anything he said in ‘reprimand’ mode) then “‘Missy’” was again thrown into the argument that was now building. To which my sister replied (loudly), “If I had slammed the door, it would have sounded like this!” And with that, and no doubt all the muscle power of her small framed stature, she thrust her door shut. Hard! It hit the wooden frame, and soundly shut. The sound shuddering through the house with the loud concussive wave that physically shook the dwelling.

There can be no denying that she had proved her point. Conclusively. The shuddering house was testament to that fact. She had re-soundly proven it. She would be very happy about that. Such a convincing, solid argument as well. Her shutting the door firmly, had produced one level of audible concussion, her slamming it, had produced a far more audible and physical sound. There was one slight problem. My sister had slammed the door with her and father on the same side. Time stopped, for just a fraction of a moment, which must have seemed a long, long pause for my sister.

I recall the many hundred of moments as a youth watching that same ‘special’ moment (over and over again). Replayed in the famous duel between Wiley E. Coyote© and the Roadrunner©. You remember. The build up of complicated planning, the careful arranging and perfect execution of his often very brilliant plans to watch as something simple went wrong (or the animators cheated). There was always that pause, that moment of realisation that yet again the plan had not worked. It often followed by the look to camera (pleading look), and then the fall, strike, collapse and usually crush of the coyote. Not only once, then repeated and continued, against, canyon floor, rock, wall, cliff, train etc, etc, etc. But it was that pause that was significant. I am sure we have all experienced it.

When my sister slammed the door (this time). There was a loud sound as the wave swept out from the door. Now if we look at physics (yes, physics again) there is the simple explanation that, after a sound wave of considerable size sweeps out from a place there is a minor vacuum created into which (as many know Nature abhors a vacuum), something must fill. In this case, after the dramatic pause, as my father must have realised that, not only had my sister proven her position, she had slammed it back (not just a back answer) at him. And there was now a silence, which he was about to fill.

(continued tomorrow)