Look Up

The Kármán line lies 62 miles above sea level marking the end of our atmosphere and the beginning of 'outer space'.

The temperature there is about - 450 degrees F and it is nearly devoid of oxygen or atmospheric pressure. I would die almost instantly if exposed to it.

62 miles is 1.6% of the Earths radius - pretty thin - not a whole lot of protection.

This 'outer space' then goes on for about 98 billion light years. The distance light travels in 98 billion years at a speed of 186,000 miles per second.

I have come to exist on a very small, very fragile globe, this earth, floating in a horrific vacuum surrounded by an immensity I cannot imagine. I live just next door to an ongoing thermonuclear explosion a million times earth's size - our sun - and face forces that could sterilize earth or even vaporize it in an instant. Nearly everything there is in the universe exists outside of my direct experience, outside of earth.

And yet, even knowing this, even after seeing photos of the entire earth floating as a beautiful blue white globe in the blackness of space, or as a pale blue dot from a distance of 3.7 billion miles by voyager - so many of us almost never look up.

Engrossed in shallow human construct, imagined empire building, and incredibly ego-centric naughtiness - we almost never look up.

Earth is everything. Well actually our country is everything. Well actually the length of our noses defines everything. And all the while nearly everything there is - is up. To look up into such immensity, really look, would provide a humility that could only foster tolerance, kindness, and a deep respect for all of life on this tiny planet. We are all in this together - all of life on earth - against immense odds - and we simply must respect our planet and all of life on it if we are to have any chance at survival.

But instead we choose to ignore nearly everything there is and live within the confines of shallow human construct and ignorance.

How very silly

How very fatal

Universe 2.0

The speed of light is seemingly random. There is nothing that explains why it has to be 300,000km/sec, except perhaps the processor speed of a simulation computer. 

The speed of light as a function of processor speed - one function per 300,000 km per second. 

Evidence we live in a simulation? 

Upgrade the computer and let's see if it changes.

Solid gold, made 4500 years ago. It is of the god Osiris and his family. Wealth is a human construct, as is god. Both have no real meaning beyond believing that they do. But here, entangled within these shallow constructs, shines the artistic spirit and capacity for goodness in all of humankind.

Up From Sideways

I work with 10 women in the ICU, go home to two, and have 4 sisters. Hell Ive been in the deep end of the estrogen pool my entire life and still haven't learned how to swim. 

Six of one...

If you are 'real' you are made up of a cloud of trillions upon trillions of subatomic particles that are organized, accessed, and interact, according to the laws of your universe. 

If you are a simulation existing in a simulated universe you are comprised of trillions upon trillions of unique energy units that are organized, accessed, and interact, within a computer, according to the laws of your simulation.  

Look Up

This photograph shows a collection of 200 billion suns - a galaxy. It would take hundreds of years using our most advanced propulsion systems just to travel between any two of its suns. Millions of years to travel across its diameter. There are1.2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. Maybe we can gain perspective as humans on earth from this, realize the immensity of what we are up against, learn to respect our fragile planet, and just get along.

Moments

What do you do when you've watched too many deaths? Horrible, avoidable, deaths, coming only after prolonged suffering despite everything you could do to help? 

You do what people have done for millennia in war, in famine, in disease. 

You seek just a moment - a single moment - of peace - just a moment - does it even exist? 

How precious just pulling a cool sheet over your head for a few more moments, or a soft tropical breeze on your face, sunlight on water, toes in sand.

Our lives can be nightmares. Modern society at the end of the day is harsh, isolating, and abusive to the soul. All we really ever have are moments. Its times like these, in your pain, you come to know that intimately.