Sunday, July 29, 2012

Meaning & "a moment without meaning"

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/06/19/155344057/stars-planets-and-the-meaningless-life

Astronomy is not really something I've taken a great interest in. But something in this article resonated with me.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about meaning. The meaning of life - well, the meaning of my life, in particular. And this article was just plain reassuring.

My favorite quotes from the article: "In a small patch of sky, in a small wedge of space, there are worlds out there right now. There are, most likely many thousands of them. These are places just like here, places where you can stand and look around. These are places with landscapes."

"Thus, for me, anytime I can be lifted from the crushing sense that this is all there is, it's a good thing. Anytime I can be reminded that there is more, so much more, than this mortal coil, it feels like a good thing.
One doesn't have to search the Kepler archive to find that feeling. It can arrive in the form of art, poetry, your kids laughter or just looking up and out. I hope you get a moment to do that today.
May you have a moment without meaning."

Sometimes you need a moment to step back from everything in your life and realize that in the grand scheme of things, whatever you're worried about isn't as big a deal as you're making it. I mean, I am one person out of almost seven billion in the world out of possibly thousands of worlds. It always comes as somewhat of a shock, realizing my own insignificance. (Not in a bad way...sometimes it's reassuring.)

Would it be strange to say that I guess there is more to life than life?


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