Calvin's epilepsy—the suffering it causes, the challenges it creates,
the sorrow it provokes—often gives me pause to consider bigger things,
incites me to contemplate life and all of its complexities from
different perspectives. Sometimes I peer from the inside looking out, at
others I gaze from the outside looking in. And always, with regard to
the world—the universe—I am forever humbled.
How
vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderable this Earth, the Theatre
upon which all our mighty Designs, all our Navigations, and all our Wars
are transacted, is when compared to them. A very fit consideration, and
matter of Reflection, for those Kings and Princes who sacrifice the
Lives of so many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being Masters
of some pitiful corner of this small Spot.
—Christiaan Huygens, The Immense Distance Between the Sun and the Planets, 1698
When
you're finally up at the moon looking back on earth, all those
differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend, and
you're going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and
why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people.
—Frank Borman, Apollo 8, December 1968
The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile. Everybody, all of us down there, not only in Israel, have to keep it clean and good.
—Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon, 29 January 2003
 |
| Alex Churney, A Milky Way Shadow at Loch Ard Gorge |
—Christiaan Huygens, The Immense Distance Between the Sun and the Planets, 1698
 | |||
| Associated Press |
—Frank Borman, Apollo 8, December 1968
The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile. Everybody, all of us down there, not only in Israel, have to keep it clean and good.
—Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon, 29 January 2003
It is comforting to read these quotes, particularly today as the madness in the Middle East continues. Sometimes I feel enraged that that tiny part of the world causes and wreaks so much havoc.
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