Seeing Earth

 

T.S. Eliot circa 1955, from Columbia University’s website

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree”

~ from t.s. eliot’s “Little Gidding”

This morning, one of my best friends ever, Laila Selk, watched this video, “Overview,” from her computer. I heard its surprising dialogue in the background. About this vid she wrote, “When I’m feeling down, watching/contemplating this lifts me right back up.” Thank you, Laila!

“Overview” is a wonderful vid by people whose work deserves our attention, but not because they’re technological wizards. Instead, because they’re awakened humans. The biggest reason our war-loving species needed to go to into space is to appreciate Earth so we’d have the choice to preserve it. In the context of an ailing, suffering Earth, and an ailing, suffering humanity, the billions we spend on the space program make it a fool’s errand.

Humans will comparatively soon be the most endangered species toward the end of this Sixth Extinction. We need lots more heroines and heroes whose quotidian activities give us lots to look forward to, and less emotionally-stunted cretins like those poster boys for willful greed, the Koch brothers, and their political sideshow-distractions.