a message
by flec, Oct 3, 2024, 5:43 PM

open this image in a new tab. look closely at the bottom right. there's a really small dot. you might need to zoom in to see it closer
carl sagan : a pale blue dot
" 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 masters 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 nowhere 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 is 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. "
to every person nervous about the amcs, proving something, trying to find peace with friends, parents, grappling with any fragment of a significant problem
we're not that significant
we're tiny specks of existence on a tiny planet in a large universe
so let's be proud of the fact that we're the only sign of life, at least for now, or at least until we reach a farther, outer world
be kind to the person you don't like
be kind to your parents, it's their first time living too
laugh if someone tries to put you down
forget about your stress, and live while you can
if nothing's important, if we're so small, if we're alone, living out our lives, all we got is each other.
carl sagan isn't remembered as much anymore, but i wanted to share these words
he left a message on mars for the people who would reach there for the first time
it is to be preserved for the next hundreds, maybe thousands of years
it's not as bad as it seems
but if we only got so much left for us in this world, if all we got is each other,
it isn't, it shouldn't, be so hard to be kind
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by flec, Oct 3, 2024, 5:44 PM