I like astronomy. The recent landing on Mars was an exciting event in the midst of our pandemonium. It set me off into a reverie, where I realized that we never wake up in the morning in the same space/time place as last night. No human ever has. No dinosaur, either.
In my reverie I saw the Earth turning, and revolving around the sun. I saw our solar system hugging the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is also turning on its center.
Suddenly I could see that the Galaxy Itself was sailing on the ocean of infinite time and space – someday to merge with Andromeda, apparently.
So never in the history of our planet has even a moment arisen in the same place or time in the Cosmos. Nothing stands still.
OK, so this is no ‘big deal’ mystic realization or anything, but for just a few moments I felt the force of that turning and travel, and felt a terrifying joy, that we are astronauts indeed, on our way to anywhere. Where? Why?
That was my reverie after that successful Mars landing – just more questions – more mystery. Ah, mystery, the juice of human life. May it always outpace us, lest we become devoid of purpose. Therefore never fear the unknown. It is, after all, our actual condition. We travel in it.
Chip Schoefter writes from Dolores, Colo.
