Why So Proud?
Things you need to remind yourself
That you’re unimportant. And so am I. We, as a species, are just 200,000 years old on a planet that was born some 4.5 billion years ago out of the Universe that itself ages 14 billion earth years. The Universe as we know it today. I bet we don’t know enough. And we never will! And if this awareness of our trivial existence is not enough to burst the self-proclaimed bubble the human race, in general and an individual, in particular, often builds around himself, then nothing else will be.
“Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.”- Carl Sagan
You and I are just another speck of dust in the emptiness that encompasses over a trillion galaxies. So what if we succeeded to land on a tiny, innocent moon? There must be a zillion more that will remain untouched by the time the human race ends, no matter how much we brag about our supremacy. Every time, and I mean every single time that I sit down to learn something, I find a hundred other things we, as a species, are still so unsure of. Things we’re only beginning to know. Things we’re only allowed to know. Things we think we need to know but are beyond the scope of a ‘certain’ textbook.
We still don’t know how a ‘placebo’ works. We have no idea what makes us dream. We haven’t found a cure for Cancer. Time travel remains a fantasy. We haven’t been able to define ‘consciousness’. ‘Mermaid syndrome’ is one of the several unsolved medical mysteries that continue to plaque the scientists’ minds. What state of matter is fire? Are there other universes as well? And lastly, why are we so proud?
Let me say it again. You and I are just a byproduct of a dynamic system that is in a state of permanent dynamic equilibrium. We are yet to fathom how it all began. We are yet to predict how it will end, if at all. Tell me, my, friend, knowing so little, how can we be so proud?
©NV
