In today’s post, we celebrate the magic of Winter Solstice and of life. For those who don’t know the symbolism of this day, per space.com/winter-solstice, “At the Winter Solstice, the sun travels the shortest path through the sky resulting in the day of the year with the least sunlight and therefore, the longest night” in the northern hemisphere. This is reverse in the southern hemisphere and occurs in June. The Winter Solstice is the celebration of the rebirth of the sun and
Visit history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/winter-solstice to learn in more depth about the cultures who celebrate this holiday and their traditions. In short, it is celebrated with fire and light, is known as the darkest day of the year and the rebirth of the sun. It prepares Nature for the upcoming Spring. Winter Solstice 2021 occurs at the time this video went live- Tuesday, December 21st 2021, 10:58am EST.
The universe is huge, possibly endless. Earth in particular depends on the sun and on water to thrive. Perhaps it is no coincidence that we are here. Perhaps it is not a religious or spiritual matter that we celebrate the sun but an Us matter, those who are aware of the blessings of the light.
This is us (humans). We murder, lie, steal, betray. We claim to love while showing hate. We persecute without bothering to see all sides. We bite first so that they can’t bite us. We exaggerate. We go to war with others…and ourselves. We withhold our own demons that eventually we start to grow horns
Then there’s them (nature and animals). Show plants growing, animals, etc.
Here is the other side of us. All of us crammed onto this (Earth). Per Carl Sagan, a pale blue dot, he said and I quote (source: https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot)
“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. “
So, now, after all these reminders of how things are supposed to be, hopefully one day we can forget all about section 1 of this video. If it takes 100 atta boys to undo 1 raaaah, I guess it’s up to all of us to see the lessons and do better, be better. Collectively. Individually, it’s a beautiful dream. Together, it’s possible.
Until next time. Sparkle bright. Your lady, Sadie, checking out.
CARL SAGAN’S FULL SPEECH:
Full speech:
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
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