How to Cope with Being Small in the Universe--Korbie

            To put it into perspective, there are roughly one million ants for every one human being. At the same time there are more stars in the Milky Way galaxy than there are grains of sand on the planet Earth. Keep in mind; this is just one galaxy out of the infinite amount of other galaxies. Knowing this, do you as an individual feel small? It doesn’t matter if you answered yes or no to this question because the truth of the matter is, both are correct. What you just imagined while reading this is an example of cosmic perspective. This view is nothing more than a humans understanding and awareness of how living things and the universe are merely two ways of describing each other. Take this into consideration. The atoms that comprise life on Earth were forged in the guts of a dying high mass star some millions of years ago. One day this star exploded to ensure the next generations of solar systems much like ours. As a result, there is now a young star with eight worlds and eight predetermined orbits. This is home. Now the Earth is nothing more than a floating blue marble which travels around a midsized star on a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy. Of which our galaxy is spinning around billions upon billions of other galaxies in this universe. Amidst the eternal movement and cosmic chaos we have the luxury of existence. To sum it up, Carl Sagan said it best, “We are a way for the universe to understand itself.” The cosmic perspective is a humble, yet empowering realization. It allows human beings to be aware that they are an extension of infinity. Of all the dogmas and religious doctrines to have existed on Earth, none has provided more comfort and connectivity than this. Staring at the cosmos it is hard to tell if we are looking up at ourselves or looking down upon ourselves. In reality it is no different than looking in a mirror. Among our reflection we see the trials and tribulations that have gotten us to where we are now; the chaos, the exhausting hours of formation, and the countless failed attempts. It’s no wonder when people look at themselves; we try to distinguish ourselves by means of egotism and pride. We have programmed ourselves to become ashamed of our progress because we dislike failure. This is the basis as to why we feel small in the first place. Should every human being one day be capable of developing such awareness, this would be an end to ignorance and belittling as we know it. Suddenly, everyone is capable of feeling relevant and in tune with one another. Throughout the course of humanity we have been divided by a multitude of factors such as war, religion, science, and ethnicity. In comparison to the vastness of the universe our actions are trivial. Our cosmic conundrums are merely ways of expressing and trying to understand ourselves.