What's Out There

... book store, grab a magazine on astronomy, or go to www.space.com, and behold the pictures of the heavens --- and as you gaze, keep in mind that all those objects are really out there! You will have just opened your mind to the cosmos; the home of a truly intricate, inter-acting, coherent congregation of stars, nebulas, galaxies, black holes, comets, asteroids, meteors, planets, and a host of other items.

Every one of them is awesome in it’s own right, and as they dance in concert with one another, they become a kaleidoscopic vision of illusions, distortions, refractions, and reflections. They are a natural high that will embed themselves into your life. They go about their seemingly everlasting evolving totally unaware we, or any other life forms, exist ---yet, they provide mysteries for us to solve, and give us reasons to be alive and dream. It wasn’t long before I realized I would never be the same, and soon appreciated the facts that we are not alone, our possibilities are never ending, and as the late Carl Sagan put it: “We Are Star Stuff!”

Even though much of the macrocosm completely defies mankind’s logic, we have a plausible concept of how it formed, how it functions, and that it’s going “somewhere” --- however, we are 100% ignorant of what it is, it’s destination, or it’s purpose. the magnitude of the universe is truly immense by any standards, for it is currently estimated to be approximately 11 to 15 billion light-years. and of that time, on the cosmic calendar, we human genetic codes have been around for about a whole 2 or 3 seconds...so, if you wish, you can tell everyone you are still a youngster, and be telling the truth. isn’t it nice to know that everything is relative?

If you think that’s incredible, consider this mystery. the faster you go, time slows down. Yep, it’s called “time dilation.”

Characteristically; it became a lot more profuse than that when Albert Einstein determined we didn’t have an adequate amount of puzzles and mysteries to keep our cerebellum’s occupied; so, in his spare time, he enumerated for awhile as to how simple, and yet complex, he could make it for us.

Being the genius he was, he succeeded, and dashed off a tiny, clandestine, and verifiable truth: E=MC2. Well, the old adage “the biggest surprises are in the smallest boxes” (or something like that) held sway. “The dung hit the fan”, “All hell broke loose”, etc...now we have “time dilation”, and “spooky action at a distance.” And if that wasn’t enough to cause many others to estrange themselves from him, the damn theory revealed “space,” “time,” and “matter” were having one heck of an argument as to who was in charge. “Space,” which is not really empty it turns out, is telling “matter” and “time” where to go, and “matter” is telling “space” and “time” when and where to bend.

Consequently, “time” got all ticked off, went into a real tizzy, and threw some deception into the melee. Now, we not only have “time zones”, but everyone’s time is different. As a result, we may know what time we think it is, but we have no clue as to what time we are in. And it you believe that’s unsettling, we are not even aware if we are moving “with’ or “through” time---damn; it’s no wonder we are all late sometimes!

Even though most of us have relatives we are only relatively happy with, I’m quite certain we all realize everything is relative. For instance, we humans may believe we are at the top of the “food chain”. But there is a very long list of other creatures out there who would love to have the opportunity to dispute that claim – the “relative” aspect becomes a very significant major factor when we discover how fast our legs will propel us in the shortest possible time, over the longest possible distance, in relation to how fast their legs will propel them over the same distance, and within the same time frame.

Therefore; since, on the cosmic calendar, we have only been screwing up our earthly habitat for about 22 seconds or so, my theory is that we humanoids are important in the grand scheme of things, to the extent we are either an “accident” or an “infection” ... either way; my guess is sometime in the future, our light-gathering telescopes will disclose what seems to be a gigantic cosmic needle heading our way, with an obvious purpose in mind.

Maybe we are, and maybe we are not, aware of it, but we all have someone who loves us, and wants us to be here for a long, long time.  Please, take care of yourself the best you can...and while you are at it, you may want to take a longer and deeper look into our universe, for it is worth it.