Grace
Hall at Cabrini University in West Philadelphia received some of my special
attention the other day as I was sent there with a co-worker to fix one of its
many skylights. A triangular window in one of them had shattered and it needed
to be replaced. The glass had been hanging there in its frame for several
months as we waited for its specially constructed replacement to arrive. The
space below had been cordoned off for safety reasons. After the installation,
as I set about removing the barriers, the new window drew the attention of
several professors and administrative staff. They were staring upward at the newly
installed triangular piece of glass and marveling at how nice it looked.
"Oh!" I said. "What is really special about that piece of glass is that, if you stand on this particular piece of tile," I moved to the center of one of the floor tiles, "and look through the very top apex of the glass on any cloudless night of the year, you will be see the North Star!"
The men stared at me skeptically. Then one of them, dressed in a suit, exclaimed, "You are full of crap!" (Well, those weren't his exact words, but they are close enough to get the point across.)
"Yes!"
I admitted. "That was fake news! But in fact, if you had given me a bit of
time to calculate which tile to stand on, that could be possible. The North
Star never moves in the heavens you know!"
This gave me an idea for a senior project at this religiously affiliated school. Why not have the creative graduate make my quick fabrication into reality there within Grace Hall. They could do the work of determining where one would need to stand to see light from the North Star shining through that skylight glass and then paint a set of footprints onto the floor at that position. Or better yet, why not paint a portrait of Jesus on the inside of the skylight surface and footprints on the floor. Then, standing in those footprints and looking into the eyes of Jesus, one could always see the North Star in the clear night sky. That may serve to remind the skeptics of the unmovable light of Jesus which has served as the guiding light for society for all these centuries -- just as that polar star has served as the guiding light to generations of sailors.
In any event, the ability of that guy in the suit to quickly and emphatically pass judgement upon my hasty fabrication, restores my faith that these professors, teaching in the hallowed halls of higher education, can still detect fake news when they hear it!
