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SPACE GOES BEYOND COMPREHENSION, RIGHT?

By November 26, 2019Humility, Philosophy, Space

Humble Sky, the title and theme of this blog, observes that humankind need only look skyward to appreciate the obvious limit of our comprehension; and further, that this universal reality check should encourage us to be more curious and more humble.

The average person does not often or ever look to the infinite sky and give it a second thought — as in “How far does outer space go?” It’s simply too daunting a question to ponder. Even the cosmological theories of an “infinite, ever-expanding universe” are, arguably, euphemisms for “We don’t have a clue.”

The fact is we may never know the answer to this most obvious and eternal of all mysteries. Bluntly put, our minds are not evolved enough. Something you’d think would — but evidently doesn’t — make the existential unknowingness of the “great beyond / beyond comprehension” the ideal motivation to inspire and expand humankind’s curiosity … and, at the same time, the ultimate metaphor for humility.

“This is the greatest damn thing about the universe,” the author Henry Miller famously opined. “That we can know so much, recognize so much, dissect, do everything, and we can’t grasp it.” He added this humbling grand reflection, “And it’s meant to be this way, do y’know. And there’s where our reverence should come in. Before everything, the littlest thing as well as the greatest. The tiniest, the horseshit, as well as the angels, do y’know what I mean. It’s all mystery. All impenetrable, as it were, right?

Makes you think, right? At least, it should.

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