There are more stars in our Universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth. And conversely, a single grain of sand has more atoms than there are stars in the Universe… How can we process our own insignificance in the backdrop of these perspective shattering facts?
As many of us struggle with the greater questions on the meaning of life, the pursuit of happiness and purpose, this question is both meaningless and our road to salvation.
When we examine the profound statements of Carl Sagan, he eloquently reflects on how “[o]ur planet is a lonely spec in the great enveloping cosmic dark.” He challenges us to:
“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.”
I’m not really sure how to process something which so completely obliterates my limited perspective… But it seems there is some kind of grace in pushing forward exactly because of this truth. Continuing to strive for decency, to practice compassion and empathy with the complete understanding that it both doesn’t matter and is the only thing which matters. It matters for the same reason that one should strive to do the right thing when no one is looking.
So, what’s the practical lesson? Well, at a minimum, it’s a tool to help us “get a grip” the next time we are quick to anger or frustration over what is guaranteed to be something insignificant, because it’s all insignificant. And it’s a reminder that striving to do the right thing must be it’s own reward. To quiet the internal voices of discord and bring some level of inner calm. So, even from a purely self interested perspective, one should embrace our own insignificance.
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