Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” is in reference to a speech we have mostly read a few times, yet it does not get tiring. It was inspired after seeing a picture of Earth from space in which Earth looks just like a tiny pale blue dot.
Sagan really understands that this planet needs us to change our ways in order to continue to call it “home” for many more centuries. In the humbling observation of this tiny place we all call home—the only actual place any of us have ever called home—astronomy shows how meaningless our quarrels with each other are, relative to the universe surrounding us. There truly is no reason for so much negativity in a tiny little place; negativity which, at best, will cause us to destroy ourselves and possibly a galaxy. The effect of our negativity in annihilating Earth will have repercussions on the entire solar system. There is, perhaps, no better manner of self-embarrassment, considering the way Sagan presents this tiny dot within a huge and vast existence, somewhat suggesting that our ignorance is worse than negligible. It is as if we were to watch two ants fight and think it is meaningless. The ants’ fight, relative to its effect on us, is on a much more effective scale than our personal altercations are of value to the universe. We must suppress the ego before we all become too carried away to remember our capacity to love and our purpose on this tiny loving planet.
