In the whole time I've blogged (close to 20 years now, if you can believe it) I've rarely reposted a previous article. I've referenced them, sure, but I can't recall ever reposting one, verbatim.
I'm still down with Covid (feeling a bit better, suddenly seem to be losing my taste buds, but otherwise on the mend, it would seem, even if I am still testing positive) so I have a lot of time and very little physical energy to spend within that time. I ended up checking my blog stats tonight and saw that someone had scrolled through this particular post today. I didn't recognize the post by the title (the very vague "Every So Often...") so I ended up rereading it. I have never been a fan of click-bait titles, preferring ambiguous ones that hopefully pique curiosity rather than force it. Hoisted by my own petard in this case...
Turns out, it's a piece I'm pretty proud of and one whose core sharing I still strive to live by. I've updated the context setter at the beginning to ditch the no longer relevant bits and the number of exoplanets has since exploded from the hundreds to over 5000 in the 16 years since this was first posted, but the basics are otherwise still in line with science.
More importantly, the piece actually has meaning, both to me personally and hopefully in a grander, more general context, to you, dear reader. 16 years ago, I had that luxury of luxury, time. In a quiet (ultimately not profitable) and quaint bookstore, I had hours on end of time to myself (customers, not contemplation were what I really needed) to think and write, among other things. I don't often consciously get this deeply connected to my core principles anymore, so re-reading this was eye opening, even for me.
/Begin Repost From June 8, 2007, with minor edits:
Every once in a while, I get caught up in a project like my kitchen reno or this blog.
It's fun.
But, why is it fun? Because, it's ultimately meaningless. Just a distraction, hopefully entertaining, but just a distraction.
Our lives, the lives of friends and family shouldn't be overwhelmed by distraction.
Perspective and the uniquely human ability to comprehend scale is one of my favourite things and I think it's important to take a step back and see the big picture once in a while.
Given how often I post distraction, tonight I wanted to present something that was actually significant.
I'm going to ask you to look at a picture. It's an almost featureless black surface, interrupted by a thin band of pale yellow light and a very small pale blue dot.
THE pale blue dot.
That's Earth. Yes, Earth. Our planet.
This is NOT a special effect shot from Hollywood. It's the Earth as seen from the Voyager 1 space craft as it passed Saturn February 14, 1990. 4 BILLION miles away. This was the last time that the camera could capture a resolvable image of the Earth and it hadn't even left the Solar System yet.
Look how small. Look how insignificant it seems. Yet, as Carl Sagan points out in his famous Pale Blue Dot speech, that's here. That's ALL of it.
It's difficult to look at this picture for some people. There are many people who don't like to be reminded that if the Earth was an elephant, each human being would be exponentially less significant than the fleas on it's back. They further don't like to be reminded just how tiny we are in relation to our own Solar System, let alone the universe.
Personally, I find looking at this photograph and reflecting upon it's truth to be about the closest I have ever come to a religious experience.
We are extraordinarily lucky to be alive and able to comprehend our place in the universe. Just think that even on our own planet just we humans, a tiny percentage of the life on our sphere, have the ability to process and understand that there are so many more shadows outside of our tiny little caves. We are taking our first collective steps out of the narrow tribalism that has dominated our species for its entire history and stepping into a universe of such immensity and complexity that our technical abilities are barely capable of observing it, let alone exploring it.
Yet despite just how tiny this photograph makes us feel, our lives, our loves, our accomplishments can still lift us to dizzying emotional heights, just as our failures, losses and missteps can throw us into deep, dark pits of despair. We are insignificant, and yet...we are important too.
"If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it still make a sound?"
We are no one, hearing all the trees in the forest of the universe.
So, what's it all about?
I don't know.
Honestly, I have no answers. I'm not a scientist, although I embrace the scientific method and try to apply reason in my life and pursuits. Neither am I a philosopher, although I do spend a great deal of time studying human behaviour and trying to understand just what the hell is going on around us. I'm certainly not a religious man, and I make no apology for that, but I respect the fact that belief in a higher power is one answer to the "What's it all about" question that many people embrace, and if that is an answer that satisfies, I have no argument with that.
What I actually DO know, is that that of all the pictures I've ever posted here, this one is the most important.
What follows is a transcript of Carl Sagan's monologue about The Pale Blue Dot. It is far more eloquent than anything I could say on the subject.
Look again at that dot.
That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.
On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary master of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is no where else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth his where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Here is a link to a YouTube video of the text of the monologue with some wonderful music and pictures.
This one has Dr. Sagan himself reading and with equally fitting music and lovely pictures.
Scientists have found 236 extra-solar (not in our little Solar System) planets in the 12 years since the first one was located. As yet, we haven't found another Earth or even any really likely life-supporting candidates. Not so far. Science took several thousand years to develop to the point where we could identify the fact that Jupiter has moons orbiting it, and it's in our backyard. Given more time, there can be little doubt that our science will identify an Earth-like planet that would have a good chance of supporting life as we understand the concept.
So, what does that mean for us?
Really, the question should be: "What does that mean for you?"
For me, another Earth-like planet would give me hope. Perhaps a potential lifeboat for our species, should we manage to drive ourselves to the brink of extinction. As I contemplate THE Pale Blue Dot, I hope that one day, our species will be able to look into the heavens, point to a star and say "We live there."
Again, I'll ask that question. "What's it all about?"
I'm going to give you my answer.
I encourage you all to find your answer.
Enjoy your life. Embrace it. Don't let distractions get between it and you. Work, play, fight, scream, cry.
Be brave. Be afraid.
Be careful. Be reckless.
Let yourself use your heart.
Hate. Yes, I said "hate".
I hate. I hate racism, war, famine, disease, corruption, pain and a thousand other things. My hatred of them hasn't lessened them one bit. Hatred is as human as love and as full of potential. It's only a negative if you let it be.
Love. Just remember that love comes with it's own potential for negativity.
Live.
Whatever you do, don't hide.
/End Repost.
I would add "watch out for Covid" to that credo in the future. It's a miserable illness that I would only wish on a select few people. If you read the blog, you're probably not on the list. If you comment on the blog, you're definitely not on the list.
No comments:
Post a Comment