I'm talking about the sheer size of the universe in comparison to the size of our planet and, even smaller, to the size of our lives and the problems that tend to crop up within them.
The really big problems that seem to be a really big deal for us--what does all of this mean when we put them into this larger context?
Everyone who has really pondered the vastness of the universe has probably been confronted with this overwhelming feeling of insignificance. The acknowledgement of the fact that our lives and everything that happens on this planet, though it may seem like everything to us, is a mere blip in the immense cosmic sea that is the known universe.
It helps sometimes to take all of your "so-called problems," give them your attention, and then turn your attention to the fact that the human eye is only capable of viewing less than one percent of the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
We don't even know for sure our exact location in the Milky Way. We also don't know the precise age or size of the universe, and we don't even know if this is the only universe. Maybe our universe is a "bubble" among countless other "bubbles."
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| Home, as captured by Voyager 1 |
It's okay if you don't understand why exactly everything is happening. It's okay. Our insight into the true workings and mysteries of the universe is incredibly limited, even within the scope of our lowly human lives, and perhaps that's exactly how it's supposed to be. (This discussion will constitute a blog post in itself.)
This is not a call to ignore all of your problems, because by doing that you just end up with bigger, deeper problems.
But this is a call to, when you can, slow down and remember the vastness of the universe and ask yourself, does this really matter?
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