Earth in the Universe

Last Sunday's papers carries an article about a planet which can be described as planet Earth's twin, 1400 light years away. This gives hopes of life elsewhere in the vast universe. It is really mind blogging to think of our solar system as just one of billions of galaxies, and earth as just one of trillions of planets in the universe.

Turn a few pages and there is another headline news about Turkey joining the war against ISIS. In the mind some huge distortions seems to be happening, so much strife over a microscopic speck in the infinite universe.

 In a space ship that orbits the Earth 16 times a day, astronauts see 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. One astronaut remarks how it changes his view:
"The view that we all have a responsibility to leave this place a little better than we found it and that we are one human family riding through the Universe together on Spaceship Earth"
Astronauts are often struck by the smallness of the earth in space and the roundness of the Earth. It stirs them to think of World citizenship rather than National citizenship.

In a similar sense our microscopic obsession with our personal life also seems to be distorted in the great scheme of things. Our obsession with our body, our image and our list of social and material needs; as well as our expectation of what our family members need to possess or do to make our lives complete make us appear like wriggling microbes visible only through a microscope.

One astronaut described his experience as acquiring the "ultimate perspective". Another astronaut Ron Garan remarked, “You really get hit in the gut with this sobering contradiction between the beauty of our planet on one hand and the unfortunate realities of life on our beautiful planet for a significant portion of its inhabitants”. He went on to say, "There's a propensity to lose things in space, because of weightlessness. But it gives you a freedom that you really don't have on the Earth.....that freedom that you get from living in a three-dimensional world.”

So there is this perpetual tussle in life,  the gravitational pull of perceived reality that makes everyday routine so urgent and pivotal versus the occasional feeling of connectedness to the universe which seems so numinous. Then again it may not really be a tussle but more like an acceptance to live within both domain, such that when the going gets tough one just needs to pause and gaze at the stars in the vast skies, the universe, to gain perspective.