Appreciate Your Home For One Moment!

I got this neat power point presentation sent to me last night. It’s called “Do You Have Problems?” and its 77 slides long, and it uses astronomy to help you put that question into perspective. I thought it was brilliant, and I want to share a part of it:

Now you will see a picture for those moments when you feel life is overwhelming… when you think your problems are enormous… and when you think there is an immense difference between the things you do and those you don’t…

It’s also a picture when you have moments as a human being you think you are powerful and magnificent… you are homo sapiens, masters of creation, at the zenith of your technological power! And you feel that with the other six billion people we are… so far, we are unique in this universe…

And finally, a picture for those moments when you think the world where you live is so big that it is indestructible… with its great cities, all the oceans, mountain ranges and continents… invulnerable planet, insensitive, with its size and greatness, with our actions as men accomplishing, or not…

Because, Earth has five hundred million square kilometers of surface! Six thousand quadrillion tons of rocks! And more than one thousand trillion tons of water!

Contemplate this picture for a few moments…

(It was taken by the Cassini-Juygens probe, in 2004, when it arrived at the rings of Saturn)

(That dot) is your planet. We are all in this little blue point…

All our wars, all our problems, all our greatness and misery, all our technology, our art, our advances, all our civilizations, all our wildlife and flora, all races, religions, all governments, countries and states, all our love, and hate…

Six billion souls in constant agitation… It does make you think, no?

If we want, we can take this picture like a lesson in humility… And like a double message:

On one hand, how little we are in this universe, with our problems and our differences, when we see them on this scale…

But on the other side, how fragile our planet is, and the importance of taking care of this little blue point… Because it’s the only home we have… Think about it… Our world is beautiful!

The End? Who knows… maybe not…

Send this message to those you know. it may help them to feel better in considering what is important in life…