on a mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. ... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that. - Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (9 Nov 1934-1996) 

His spectacular Being among us cut short by cancer at age 62, Carl Sagan would have been 83 today. Though apparently wrong by half with his figure 100 billion galaxies, he’d be delighted that it’s now 200 billion, making us even less special. He was a One and Only whom a Smithsonian magazine article called “truly irreplaceable.” 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-carl-sagan-truly-irreplaceable-180949818/

For all his denial of our specialness, Sagan and his mind and imagination helped Make It So that we live in a special moment in a special place. The tragedy of time and space is that, because in our ungodly egocentric myopia each of us thinks we are so special and so right, we are killing each other off and there may soon be no one in this universe to think and wonder. A bed of ants fighting for control of the mound. 

For any who remember Sagan, and maybe especially for anyone who doesn’t, the linked article is worth a qyick read. My favorite line from it, perhaps because it’s more theological than whimsically scientific, regards Voyager I looking back at us, Earth, from billions of miles away:

“That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you have ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...Every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every revered 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.”

Time and Life go on, for some, at least for now. RSF&PTL. 

DThos+ in +Time+

Pic from Voyager I
A Thought for Today from Anu Garg