Once upon a time, two LGM (Little Green Men) were having a conversation:
Have you even seen the Cosmic Voyage at IMAX? It's a journey from the sub atomic particles to the cosmos. It's kind of like this. Where are we? Somewhere in the middle...not only thinking we are intelligent, but being arrogant enough to believe we are the only intelligent beings EVER!! That's being plain complacent. All the time fighting against one another for petty things, spending our entire lives on things that don't matter two pence on the scale of humanity.
When I hike up mountainous trails and suddenly stop on my tracks to look at the huge, snow covered Mt. Rainier in front, when I see the black half dome studded with stars, I feel humbled and proud, both! My favorite constellation - big dipper - reminds me of the questions that haunted us humans for which we found answers - and the ones that are challenging us as we delve deeper and deeper to gain more knowledge, to find the truth.
Yes, we are tiny beings in the Universe, but we have conquered a lot. Our mind can see what our eyes cannot. Big dipper would stay there for a long time as the heavenly question mark reminding us of the questions we will find answers for in the future!!
I love being a human.
No wonder they underestimate us! I sometimes think if they (somewhere out there) are looking down (literally so) at us with amusement. Probably they are saying - wow! It took them millenia to invent a touch sensitive device? Or "they don't have a cure for cancer still?" Maybe! Who knows?
Carl Sagan's "Contact" is like Gospel to me. I swear by the book and live by it. So if, by chance SETI is successful I wouldn't be amazed. I like to imagine "someone from their planet" looking for us as well. We might not be the darlings of the Universe.
Have you ever introspected on where we stand as humans? We are small in size, don't have much physical strength (we can't fight off a gorilla), don't have claws or teeth sharp enough to even fight with a domestic cat, can't run like a cheetah, can't swim without having to learn, can't hear beyond a certain point (both up and down the scale), can't see in the dark (how many of us wear glasses?)...so we are an utter failure as a race.
Have you even seen the Cosmic Voyage at IMAX? It's a journey from the sub atomic particles to the cosmos. It's kind of like this. Where are we? Somewhere in the middle...not only thinking we are intelligent, but being arrogant enough to believe we are the only intelligent beings EVER!! That's being plain complacent. All the time fighting against one another for petty things, spending our entire lives on things that don't matter two pence on the scale of humanity.
When I hike up mountainous trails and suddenly stop on my tracks to look at the huge, snow covered Mt. Rainier in front, when I see the black half dome studded with stars, I feel humbled and proud, both! My favorite constellation - big dipper - reminds me of the questions that haunted us humans for which we found answers - and the ones that are challenging us as we delve deeper and deeper to gain more knowledge, to find the truth.
Yes, we are tiny beings in the Universe, but we have conquered a lot. Our mind can see what our eyes cannot. Big dipper would stay there for a long time as the heavenly question mark reminding us of the questions we will find answers for in the future!!
I love being a human.
1 comment:
beautiful and profound observations. yes we are lucky to be around as humans in this magnificent creation. when we are no more, the recycle bin will recombine everything. who knows whether such arrangements will be endowed with consciousness? but it is definitely a privilege to be a human in this tour called life!
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