“That’s here. That’s home. That’s us… The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena….
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. ” – Carl Sagan
In considering the vast size and scale of the universe, this video is the first thing that pops into my mind. This video, also, will without fail make me cry, or at least tear up.
This video makes me tear up because it quickly knocks me off my feet and grounds me in our truest reality. While we as humans go about our daily lives, we get so wrapped up in the perceived hugeness of our own problems, like the amount of reading we were assigned this week or the fact that one certain person didn’t answer your text message. We get so wrapped up in our own egos we lose sight of our collective humanity. We as humans have destroyed one another for no real reason while co-existing on this pale blue dot. However, in the end, everything from the day-to-day annoyances of life to the grand scale of the entire human experience is but a speck in the universe.
So the question then becomes, how can we ascribe meaning to our experiences if, on a grand universal scale, they are so trivial and fleeting?
How do you choose to give meaning to your life in the face of our vast universe?
For me, meaning is found in the small-scale moments, the moments where you make a comment that turns someone’s day around, or the moments where you feel alive and connected and awake to the world around you.
But however you choose to ascribe meaning to your life, the fact still remains that we are mere dust specks, uniquely aware of our part and place in the universe.
By me
