I am a follower of science news. I stop by many sites every day to read the latest updates in several fields, and astronomy is one of my favourites ones.
Phoenix, the latest probe being sent to Mars has eventually found water! You know, water does not have any meaning in itself, it could have found something else, but this element is a sign of life, of an environment with the right characteristic to sustain living cells.
The first probe was sent to mars in 1976, and since then a multitude of surveys of the red planet have been made with just one goal: To find life.
We are also actively looking for and studying the exoplanets, planet orbiting distant stars, with properties similar to earth. Why we are going to dissipate funds and time for this?
To find life.
Aliens, new planets, the area 51 in Nevada. Why we are so thrilled and show such a deep interest in the smallest gossip about them? I am questioning all of this as a follower myself. Why I care so much? After all, why to care whether we are alone in the universe or not?
I came to a possible answer: we feel lonely, mankind need friends.
We spent millennia watching the sky with the hope to see the gods, or whatever we think they are, and we did not change, we use more sophistication, complex terminology, technology, but the question is always the same, are we alone?
We have this struggling need to socialize, to correlate, to share, to express.
A philosopher of ancient Rome once said that we are social animals, and he was right, we live to socialize, we want it or not. If you think you don’t need to share something, think about it again a couple of times, because you are wrong.
We feel incomplete, unfinished, and we look forward to join our bodies and souls to be one, in a conscious way or not. Someday we will find creatures similar to us in the deepest of space, or maybe we won’t.
Until then, respect your brothers and sisters on this planet, give them the best of your care, because they are here for you. We look for companions in the stars, but we don’t care of our neighbours, we don’t greet people in the streets. We should remember that the “heavens” are here, on earth, in our beautiful garden. Dig your garden first, it’s so close.
That is great sentiment coming from the heart as I can feel it. I live in a Cooperative Housing Society called the Mars Housing Society. All of us are called Martians by our neighbors! So, here is a Martian extending his greetings and best wishes to you.
Thank you rummuser, my intent is to say that we look in the skies for something that we already have, and we don’t even notice it.
I love your posts! I used to dream a lot about the heavens and the stars too as a kid, but as you said, heavens are here on earth, in our garden and that it is so close.
The stars are very close indeed as everything is in our sight center and brains.. =D
Hmm.. I could feel myself floating now.. hehe =)
@ Tati
Yes, after all we create everything we think about, even the skies. We should direct more thoughts to the people closer to us, though