Sunday, February 21, 2010

Pale Blue Dot


Voyager 1 (1990)

Quote by Carl Sagan:
"Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

That makes me think how seemingly insignificant we are. From a photograph of Earth 6 billion kilometers away made by Voyager 1, we're not even a grain of dust in our own solar system. But it doesn't matter, and what matters is that we cherish what we have here. It is the mind, the curiosity, and the determination that make humans significant. It is the wonderful life on Earth that makes us stand out (well at least for now) from the rest of the universe. And one day, we'll venture to the unknown, look back at the pale blue dot, and say, proudly, that that is our home.

Been wanting to read that book "Pale Blue Dot" for a while. Alright, this March 18, spring break equals reading time!

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