Perspective
I brought our car in for service yesterday. During my wait I headed to a bookstore and spent an hour or so browsing books and magazines. Bookstores are great places to hang out. So many subjects, so much knowledge, so many ideas presented. It makes me want to sponge up those ideas, that knowledge, those subjects up. It also reinforces for me that there is so much to learn and see and yet there is relatively little that we learn and see during our lifetimes.
I walked out with two magazines. The Economist's The World in 2009 and National Geographic's Space special edition.
As the day went on I finished reading the Space magazine. Space and the universe are subjects that have amazed me since I was a child. This universe that our tiny blue ball is a part of is incomprehensible due to its size. Reading the magazine I learned that we had not only gone to the Moon and landed probes on Mars and Venus but that we had also landed probes on Titan (one of Saturn's moons) and on 433 Eros (an asteroid). One of the probes launched in 1977 (Voyager 1) is now entering interstellar space where the Sun's influence ends. We have confirmed that water exists on Mars in the form of ice and we suspect there is water on Titan, Enceladus (another of Saturn's moons) and on Europa (one of Jupiter's moons). When you add the fact that we have already found 300 planets orbiting other stars and the fact that there are 100 billion (or more!) galaxies, each with billions of stars, you can't help but believe that there is life of some sort out there somewhere.
At the end of the day my wife and I spoke about how the subject of space is humbling. How it forces you to put everything into perspective - everything - including your flesh and bones. We wondered whether human beings would change their behaviours if the subject of space was reported on daily by media. If humans, regardless of their role (president, CEO, mother, child, teacher, whatever) would suddenly appreciate what we have and learn to put perspective into their lives. Learn to not dwell on the past and themselves but rather work together to make the present (and future!) a marvelous adventure of discovery for humankind.
The day ended with the two magazine covers lying on our bed.
The covers put it all into perspective for me.
The top one depicts the various issues that some believe humankind will face in 2009 - Obama and his presidency, Iran going nuclear, the state of the medical system, whether bulls or bears will own the economy, Iraq, German elections, the environment.
The second cover has a picture taken by the spacecraft Cassini on 15 September 2006. It is taken beyond Saturn, looking back at it towards the sun. It is an eclipse of the sun, by Saturn. Beyond the rings (at ten o'clock) a tiny little dot can be seen. A distant star? Nope. Earth. (you can see the picture on the NASA website by clicking here).
Interestingly, at the bottom of The Economist's cover, there is a green-armed creature holding up a catalogue of vacation packages. The catalogue is open to a page offering packages to Earth. What will it find if it decides to buy one of those packages and come for a visit with its family? I hope a world where people are awakened to the fact that Earth is but a speck of dust. A place that is nothing yet is everything. A place that is, currently, our only home. A place we need to live in together. One that we need to protect and care for.
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