x7 billion
3.01.2012
I was talking to a friend the other day about perspective, and how most of us lack it most of the time. I constantly teeter on the edge of 'does it actually matter' when considering something, because I am continually reminded of the fact there is somewhere around 7 billion people on the planet (and also because I often wax existential). Each of us have so much going on all the time, and all of that matters very much to us, concerns us and others...but times that by 7 billion. It's like zooming in and out on a camera or microscope or telescope. We matter times *this much*, but so does everyone else.
I really like the photo I included in this blog because it's a visual representation of what I'm trying to say here. You pick up a handful of sand. They pretty much all look the same. You zoom in on a few of those grains of sand. You can see they are a little different, in color, in shape, etc. You zoom in even further. Now you can see how colorful and unique and different every grain is, and wonder how you could have ever thought them to look the same. Zoom back out...and there is just a handful of sand again. Obviously it's a little different with humans, since we are fluid creatures and what we do effects other people and ourselves, mentally and physically. That doesn't really happen with sand, though sand has the advantage of staying itself and not dying. But you get my point.
Now think about how much is going on in one single second of time. We don't often do that. Think about exactly what is happening other places in the world, or even 10 feet away. So MUCH is going on that it's just baffling to consider. The biggest part of it is that we can't SEE what is going on. It is almost all invisible. Someone's thoughts, whether about groceries or suicide or that guy from the coffee shop, etc., are the gears that are turning time itself (which could lead me into talking about how time isn't linear, but we'll save that for another day). Pretty crazy, right?
[photo credit: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/incredibly-colorful-magnified-sand]
I really like the photo I included in this blog because it's a visual representation of what I'm trying to say here. You pick up a handful of sand. They pretty much all look the same. You zoom in on a few of those grains of sand. You can see they are a little different, in color, in shape, etc. You zoom in even further. Now you can see how colorful and unique and different every grain is, and wonder how you could have ever thought them to look the same. Zoom back out...and there is just a handful of sand again. Obviously it's a little different with humans, since we are fluid creatures and what we do effects other people and ourselves, mentally and physically. That doesn't really happen with sand, though sand has the advantage of staying itself and not dying. But you get my point.
Now think about how much is going on in one single second of time. We don't often do that. Think about exactly what is happening other places in the world, or even 10 feet away. So MUCH is going on that it's just baffling to consider. The biggest part of it is that we can't SEE what is going on. It is almost all invisible. Someone's thoughts, whether about groceries or suicide or that guy from the coffee shop, etc., are the gears that are turning time itself (which could lead me into talking about how time isn't linear, but we'll save that for another day). Pretty crazy, right?
[photo credit: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/incredibly-colorful-magnified-sand]
