The Pale Blue Dot

This is my last ‘4000 weeks’ related blog post (I think…!)

One of the other ideas that has really come through for me at this moment is the idea of ‘cosmic insignificance’.

I am sure at some stage you have seen the grainy picture of a pale blue dot in the middle of a dusty looking background – the small dot being earth, the photo being taken from our own solar system. And if you spend a little bit more time searching, you will find photos of our solar system being a speck in our galaxy, and our galaxy being a speck in our universe. I mean really, all you have to do is look up on a clear night. 

Throw in a time scale, maybe 4 billion years for the earth, maybe 13 billion for the universe, nobody will really ever know for sure. 

What we have is a really short time in a really small place – in the universal scheme of things. 

Even those that have claimed to make a ‘dent in the universe’… well maybe at this scale what they make is not even a dent. 

Once again, I am not suggesting a nihilistic approach or attitude whereby nothing really matters. Because clearly our life matters – to each of us and to those who care for us. 

But what I do think is that if we can put our daily struggles, decisions, pains and passions into this perspective, they often seem less heavy. Maybe they can even feel absurd or funny in some cases (you can laugh or cry as the saying goes).

So when you are stuck in traffic, or getting frustrated by the family, or even if you have a large decision to make – moving country, moving to the country, changing jobs, or something more consequential, try this perspective. 

I would hope that it offers a new kind of clarity, allowing you to look at what is in front of you without the burden of the ‘significance’ of the situation that can make the weight of frustrations and decisions so very heavy.