An Earthly Perspective

I am far from a scientist. I am a school bus driver who writes on the side. I do ponder the universe. I stand outside my Grandfather's house and stare into the great unknown.

Here, the United States wants to make a space force and beat the other world's countries into running our galaxy. In actuality, I feel as if Earth is the joke of the universe. As if the smallest kid in the neighborhood can take on anybody.

Let me put things into perspective for you. You stand outside after dark and gaze up toward the heavens. You see pinpoints of lights. The tiny lit balls of gas are stars. We know that the light that lights our Earth is a star as well. We call it, the sun.

These lights look tiny, but in actuality, they are millions of miles away. Pick the smallest star you can see visually. Now, imagine next to that tiny pinpoint of light is a small rock that circles this star. The rock is a planet not unlike Earth. Maybe human beings live on this unknown earth. Or, as far as we know, something totally different from us.

We believe we run the Universe when actually, we are nothing but specks of dust. Of course, I'm a spiritual/religious person and I know what religious people would say to me. But I am not denying any sort of an alpha being. I am just stating facts.

We as humans live on earth. Earth is a part of a galaxy. Our galaxy consists of planets and moons that circle a star. We may believe our Sun is large, but it is actually as small as the other stars around us. We are but particles that live on a rock. Our rock has growths on it that we call continents. Our rock has water that covers 70% of it. We take more rock from our rock and build whole communities. That includes buildings, streets, housing, etc.

We are just a piece of space debris that has living creatures on it. Of course, our rock has an atmosphere surrounding it to protect itself from our star's warmth. But as human beings, we are destructive creatures. We use emissions and different chemicals over time that destroy our invisible shield. Our star's rays penetrate through the holes of our atmosphere and warm our rock. It causes changes in our climate and kills our land creatures. Whole ecosystems die and animals become extinct.

After we figure out what we are doing, we try to fix it, but we have gone too far. It's like we take a brick and hit it with a hammer a few times. We can take the pieces and try to put it back together, but it will never be the same. Now researchers on our rock are searching for other rocks that we could possibly move to in the future. But the question remains, will we destroy our new rock?

Human beings resemble termites. We are so small but can do so much damage to the home if we are left to. Our small, handheld rock home is floating around our small star. It will soon be space dust if we don't take care of it.

The next time you take a gander into space, find a tiny pinpoint of light. Imagine, a small rock circling it. Imagine a tiny speck of a creature looking up into the same sky you are, looking at your star. Imagining your small rock circling your star. They may not see you, but give a wink and a smile. And they may be doing it right back.