Thoughts On NASA Photographs

From an old post in an MSNTV-only discussion group.


NASA pics thoughts

Group: news:alt.discuss.clubs.public.science.alternative.rriverstone_2

Date: Sun, Aug 10, 2003, 7:09pm (MDT-1)

From: Rogi Riverstone

This is what I mean about reality being amazing.

Sometimes, after a GRUELING day of human/societal crud, I'll be watering my garden at dusk.

The cats will b playing; the humming bird and bees are snagging the last drops of nectar off the sunflowers before they go to bed.

The cicadas and crickets start signalling for mates.

A breeze blows through the alley and the tree tops sound like ocean waves.

I'll pull out my old plastic lawn chair, sit smack in the middle of the alley and look up.
The sunsets here are gold and tangerine and grape and other sizzling colors.

The sun disappears behind the mesas and volcanoes and the stars appear.

I can't see much, here in the city, with the light pollution and the dust.

But I pick out Orion I find the Summer Triangle and the planet Vega.

I see a planet now and then.

But in my mind, I see photos like these.

I remember peering thru the local astronomy society's home made telescopes in the middle of the night as we shared picnic baskets and sipped coffee.

I remember the first time I saw a globular cluster, on the far side of the Milky Way.

I think about how beings on other worlds might be seeing our part of the sky.

I think about Dr. Sagan.

I think about my father.

I think about Voyager and Galilleo and ancient peoples who looked up at the same sky I'm seeing and wondered, just as I am.

And I often weep with the glory of it, with the magnificence of it, with the intensity and intricacy of it.

And, suddenly, the guy who called me a name, the slum lord, the drug addicts, the smell of urine by the dumpster, the pettiness and hate and stupidity I've slogged through all day falls away.

And I am the Universe, conscious of itself.