A Matter Of Perspective

Next time you are being chewed out for some trivial perceived failure try offering this.

This is how significant you and I are. We are about 6 feet tall. The largest mountain on Earth is Mt. Everest, about 30,000 feet tall. From the top, you could not see me without the aid of binoculars. If I were to attack the mountain with even dynamite, it would take years before I alone could make a significant change to it.

Yet on this planet Mt. Everest itself would need to be three times as tall to reach from the bottom of the abyss off Hawaii to the top of the volcanic peak. Makes your 6 feet pretty insignificant. But wait there's more. The smoothest most polished ball bearing ever made has a surface which is thousands of times rougher than the earth's. Imagine 6 foot you dropped on an Earth-sized ball bearing.

Now zoom out to the solar system. Earth is a mediocre sized planet. Hundreds of earth could be dumped into the interior of Jupiter. You and I can not even rise off the ground without mechanical help. Even the Apollo only got man to the Moon. The flight took weeks, and a trip to Mars would take months. From the outer limits marked by Pluto, no sign of any life can be seen on Earth.

Next, zoom out to our galaxy. The tiny speck of dust called Earth orbits a G class star of very average size. This star, our Sun, is in one of the arms of its galaxy way out near the tip of the arm in a relative vacuum of space. The giant arch of milky white stars that we call the Milky Way is our edge-on view of the galaxy. There are billions of G class stars here. There are billions more other class stars.

Now, if I pitched the worst kicking screaming fit, I could do you think this galaxy cares? How about the millions perhaps billions of other galaxies, most of them larger than ours. So excuse me if I don't take this dressing down as seriously as you wish.