Big World

It probably seems ironic that I would choose to talk about the Pale Blue Dot when describing this month's theme, Big World- but I hardly think it is. Imagine having the ultimate camera with an infinite zoom; if we left two rocks on the CONTROL and + buttons on our computers and just let it zoom forever, eventually we'd get to the perspective of the folks in the International Space Station, hurtling around in the mammoth gravity field of the planet at thousands of miles per hour. And then eventually, the perspective of an anxious traveler looking down, shaking in their boots as they observe their world reduced to pastel-colored squares on the ground. And then, at some exhaustingly distant point, we'd get to the perspective of just us, looking around and wondering how big the world really is. Needless to say, that kind of zooming (and ensuring a quality perspective when we get down to our level) is impossible for most of us.

Carl Sagan insisted that the Voyager take this picture in 1990 as a reminder of the vastness of the cosmos. Now I will insist that we all attempt to envision such a picture, but instead of the universe we impose our scope of the world against the larger whole; who are we to the rest of the microcosms glued to this floating space-rock? I can't imagine that my life, my experiences, even my mission of spreading creative wriitng and alternative thinking, can ever be comparable to the kind of experiences my Nigerian counterparts are facing at this moment, hidden somewhere in a cloak of terror. For the girl in rural India scared to venture into her own fields alone and facing unimaginable risk around every corner may not imagine a different norm, a remotely shared experience as the one I am blessed to share with those around me today. It is out of this sentiment that I wonder how often any of us ever think of fellow humans as kins, as we are so neatly grouped together in infinitely smaller worlds from day one.

We're on a vessel of life, all 7+ billion of us. But on our own shores, even, we're not entirely sure of who's on our side, or who knows what we're going through. The versatility of human experience is so different, and so often misunderstood, that we writers often find ourselves with a particularly slippery grasp of it through even our most valiant efforts to capture it. What a grand perspective to take, if anyone really can. The differences we recognize in each other, the norms we attempt to impose on society, even the idea of "civilization" and "savagery"- all of these things keep us desperately far away from dreaming beyond our bedroom windows.

This month we're focusing on the bigger little picture and expanding the world around us. What kind of experiences are MOST universal, and what defines this planet in general? Perhaps Sagan and his constituents had an inkling, because when I look at the iconic picture of the Pale Blue Dot, I come a step closer to finding the answer.

#palebluedot