I watched the shooting stars on the morning of October 21. One good one every ten minutes, a beautiful sight to see in a matchingly beautiful night sky. Not nearly as beautiful as it should be.
Look up one night. If you are in a city, it might be difficult to see the stars. If you can see them, you may make out a few constellations. If you are lucky, you can get a beautiful view of hundreds of stars.
But for the love of god, look at the picture. Why can't we see this? The sky is something so beautiful, so delicate. If a God doesn't exist to make it, the sheer magnificence of it proves some purpose to life. I don't pretend to know which scenario is the more truthful, but the point remains: We all deserve to see this some time in our lives.
Try counting the stars in that picture. Try noticing how tiny we are. How far could you walk in 15 minutes? 15 hours? 15 days?
Imagine 15,000 years at the speed of light. That's how far away we are from things that can still be beautiful. What does that mean? Are we alone? Are we unique? Could someone be looking back at us?
The real answer is...
Who cares? It's beautiful now, and now is the only time we keep. Appreciate it. Don't ruin it.
Picture from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0402/skymt_payne_big.jpg
Worth checking out: http://www.darksky.org/
Science is the imitation of natural ingenuity; Art is the imitation of natural beauty. Nature is the best scientist, the best artist, and it didn't even have to try.
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