PRAY FOR PARIS

    We are so infinitesimally small; beyond microscopic when compared to the vastness of the Universe. And yet, we humans continue to posture and attempt to assert our dominance. And for what?

    It's times like this when I am reminded of Carl Sagan's now famous "Pale Blue Dot" quote Upon viewing an image of the Earth taken on February 14, 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billionmiles, 40.5 AU), these were Carl's thoughts:

    Quote

    “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 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. 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.

    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.”

    Husband, Father, Pajama Enthusiast

    I spent hours calling some friends (musicians and tveir beloced) in paris in fear they could have been harmed.

    Nevertheless please some mod close this thread.Better no politics,we are all musicians after all and this is all about the KPA.

    As @waraba said:peace,love & rocknroll.