Howdy good neighbors,

In an effort to not make this little corner of cyber-space not seem to intense or preachy, I’ve decided to talk about something I love. Something so big it is beyond politics and all that nonsense. It can make one feel some infinite and insignificant. It can raise your spirits and keep your feet firmly grounded. I love astronomy. I love nothing more than a clear dark night under the stars, looking backward in time and space. I love looking at light older than me, light older then this country, light older than my species.

Astronomy is my salvation and my sanity. I’ve learned to see this planet and by extension this species as not as big or as important as we sometimes imagine. All our ego and lust for power seems rather trivial when you really examine the scope of where we really live.

Earth is but an ordinary planet orbiting an ordinary star on the fringe of an ordinary galaxy. We in the cosmic sense are no more then a stray droplet in an ocean, if that much.

Now I know some of you may read this and are sitting there getting increasingly unsettled. I say relax. The immense size of the universe should serve as a source of joy and wonder, not one of fear. We should delight in the unknown and seek to understand it. We should be willing to venture forward into the darkness of uncertainty and light candles of understanding.

I shall leave you with a quote that sums up my feeling for astronomy rather nicely.

“Oh my joy. Only you deserve conceit”
Spin the Black Circle
Pearl Jam

Thank you Mr. Sagan.