Weather Watchers

Seeing the Jovian system with my own eyes, retracing the steps of Galileo and understanding that there was indelible proof that the Earth was never the center of the universe, only the center of our pitiful abilities to comprehend the universe...it was an amazing feeling topped only by a brief episode around the same time (some 25 years ago now) where I had an experience that lasted but seconds and has profoundly affected me to this day...I can't fully describe it, but it was an understanding that everything seen and unseen, known and unknown is connected, is part of a singular universal consciousness/being. There was an intense peace and stillness in that moment and I won't ever forget it as long as I persist in this collection of cells and systems that form "me".

Carl Sagan said (paraphrasing) humanity is special in that as far as we know for sure, humans are the only matter in the universe that is made up of star-stuff contemplating that very same star stuff. What I experienced certainly made Sagan's words more real and prescient to me forever more. We are all made of the same chemicals and physics. We are all going to eventually return to a lower state of entropy and our molecules will form something else in our stead...that period between birth and self-awareness and then from awareness throughout 'life' is a miracle for everyone. Using that interval to do anything other than expand the universal knowledge and understanding seems like a sacrilege to me.