still sky and moving earth
Sometimes I forget that our planet is floating in nothingness, spinning and rolling at impossible speeds. Then one day, someone retweets an awe-inspiring stabilized time lapse (0:19) and I remember. It washes over me like an ocean wave: this life is pretty miraculous.
When I watched that video loop for the third time, I realized it’s a more accurate image than the time lapses we’re used to. By stabilizing the stars, Eric Brummel viscerally shows us our planet rotating through space. It seems surreal, but this is actually a more faithful representation of reality.
You already knew that still earth and moving sky is an illusion. But this video reminds you that we’re a bunch of sentient monkeys hurtling through space on a giant rock, mysteriously aware and unceremoniously selfish. The space fills with an inevitable question: Why? Why are we here? Why work? Why survive? Why do anything?
Apparently scientists can predict your wellbeing based on your answers. If you have purpose - doesn’t matter if it’s god, love, justice, science, or anything else - you are more likely to be happy. If you don’t, well, it’s gonna be an uphill battle.
It’s almost like we need food, water, air, and purpose. The question ‘why?’ is like a leak in our boat, and we desperately try to plug it up with answers while trying to sail. Is it any wonder why we buy so easily into fandom, political parties and careerism? We reach out to whatever we can find. We take cues from our friends, our parents, our culture, and our news feeds.
Lately I’ve been trying to find a groove beyond group identity and siloed social norms. I’ve been sharing music on this attention activist list and meditating with colleagues on work calls. Crossing streams is scary, but it certainly helps when I see our planet destabilized under a stabilized sky. When I see how fragile we are, it opens me up to bring my whole self wherever I go.
We hate a lot on technology for distracting us from reality. It’s easy to forget that reading glasses are also technology; we create things that help us see things more clearly, too. I see the horizon every day, but it took a long-exposure camera and some clever post-production to open me up to a wider perspective.
It’s cold out there. It’s astronomically hot out there too. Yet we’re delicately balanced on a perfectly wet rock in a bubble of warmth. It could all fall apart so quickly. Our bubble could pop. This planet is home to everything I love, and it’s all so delicate. And so improbable.
What else is there to do but to care for each other? The texts we send are all love letters. The food we cook is fertilizer for the bodies of all who eat it, including the dogs and insects who get our leftovers. And yes, the art and technology we create could help create a better world.
Everything we do can be in light of the big picture. Our ‘why’ can be relentless service. We can open ourselves and connect with the people around us, the planet, and the animals, too. To embody this is to be ambitious. Not the greedy-pursuit-of-a-fat-bank-account ambitious. Not the huge-house-and-private-jet ambitious. Much more ambitious than that.
I’m talking about a deeper, more audacious ambition: striving to be someone who elevates everyone and everything they come in contact with. Easy to talk about it. Much harder to embody it in life. But the possibility is always there if we can keep our eyes on the ball - the big giant ball hurdling through space.
Start small. Who’s in the room with you right now? Or in the next room? Or who are you going to talk to on a video call next? Would it be possible to interact with them in a way that puts them first? Could you get out of your own way and offer them care in their language?
And what are you working on these days? What projects are on the horizon? Would it be possible to work in a way that optimizes the positive impact you have on the world? Could you truly put others before yourself in your work?
In every interaction, we drop a bit of ourselves in this ocean we share, and our intentions ripple out beyond our ability to understand. Make sure it’s love you’re dropping. It might be the only way to be happy.