It seems most people have a sort of visceral reaction to the
implications of being on our ‘pale blue dot’ all alone and floating in a
vast emptiness on the edge of our galaxy. One classmate mentioned that his
reaction, essentially, was that the size of our bodies compared to our planet
compared to the universe ultimately has no immediate effect on his life;
therefore, he has no plan to make any sort of fuss over the matter. Others
expressed that the scale is simply an obstacle to overcome on our way to new
frontiers, and another selection of students voiced that if contact were to
happen in the tiny blips we call our lifetimes, a foreign life form will need to
be the ones to make the call. Our minuscule rock has many facets, and I believe
the microorganisms we call humans shine the brightest. Not because of what we
are but because we have the ability to know who we want to become.
It took billions of years, according to our current
estimations, to finally arrive at a species complex enough to understand what
it is. Only now is that species beginning to take its first steps, and the walk
has not been far, especially with the backwards steps it tends to take. The
ultimate irony in this little species, at least at this distance in its walk,
is that the realization of who they are tugs along the realization of how
insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things. For many generations they
will be powerless and anxious for their future. Only 2% of a difference in DNA separates
the worrisome humans from the blissful monkeys, who are free to spend their
generations wild and carefree until the ultimate end they will never see coming.
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