I was browsing some interesting astronomical facts, and I came across the following data:

  • If our SUN is the size of a small grain of sand, in the center of our hand
  • Then, our entire Solar System, would fit in the palm of our hand
  • Comparatively, the Milky Way galaxy to which our Solar system belongs will be the size of North America.
  • Billions of such Milky Way galaxies are a part of the Universe, as revealed by recent Hubble Telescope Hubble Extreme Deep Field images

Our Sun (spec of sand in our hand) is 1.3 million times larger than our planet Earth. And on our miniscule, blue planet, we have 8 billion denizens. I wonder if our individual existence even registers, on any scale of measurement. Do we even exist, w.r.t the Universe?

Now let’s look at this from the concept of time. Scientists have taken a fresh look at the observable (expanding) universe and have estimated that it is 13.77 billion years old (plus or minus 40 million years). In the context of this timeline, our lifetime of 70-80 years can be measured in zeptoseconds – which is a trillionth of a billionth of a second (10-21 seconds).

Looking at the Universe from the immense vastness of space and the timelessness of time – we/us must be totally inconsequential and very, very SMALL, way below the noise level of the Radio waves filling the ether space in the universe.

In the larger scheme of the Universe, I am unsure what value-add we provide to the Universe. At the same time, for most of us – we are at the center of our own Circles of Life. “I” comes first, and we have a grandiose notion of our existence/importance. We take everything around us for granted. Our surroundings exist to serve us and are for our benefit – to support our brief blip of a lifetime on earth. Who has spent even an iota of time thinking of how ‘invisible’ we may be to the rest of the universe,

Ask yourself these questions – WHO am I? WHY am I here? WHAT is the purpose of my brief existence? Spirituality and religious scholars have attempted to answer this – and their teachings have only divided us further into islands/silos. As I too struggled with these questions, I attempted to cover this topic in a blog listing – Belief Systems, almost 5 years ago.

Most of us do not contemplate such thoughts, nor do we care for the answers. We live our lives, as our forefathers did; grow up, get a job, have a family, get old, cross-over (to the unknown) – and our children continue this cycle in perpetuity, till eternity.

My belief is…. Rather than getting lost in our immense universe and dealing in speculation, focus on yourself and on everything, where you can make a difference. Sometimes it is good to not try to see anything beyond the tip of your nose. Live in your present, with an eye out into the future. You are as good, or as important, as you are willing to believe in yourself. Don’t let enormous roadblocks stop you or slow you down. Your purpose in life is what you make it to be. There is no user manual to guide you.

Your relative size/presence in the universe does not matter. The 8 billion denizens of this planet each have a brain buzzing with over 90 billion active neurons each – and a neural network capable of solving ANY problem that we apply our minds to. We may be insignificant in size – but there is no other (known) life form in the universe who can match our achievements, as we evolved from the stone ages to space travel.

As an argument as to why size should not matter in the size of contributions/impact you can make/have – consider the Covid-19 Coronavirus as an example. In 1 cm of human hair, 10 million Coronavirus can be packed. It is less than 100 nM in size. Compare this to a typical human with a height of 6ft 6in. Our species is 2 billion times larger than a single Coronavirus. Yet the Coronavirus for the last 18 months, has brought our civilization to its knees, has domesticated us and ‘trained’ us to wear masks, maintain social distance, and has managed to change our lifestyle completely.

I am not promoting the negative Coronavirus behavior…. My point is size does not matter in what you can accomplish. You CAN make a similar impactful positive difference to your life, for those around you, your community and for our civilization. Just look at History and read about those who came before us. How their conviction in themselves and their beliefs – flattened mountains and dried up seas for them, to make an impact on the world with their discoveries and societal changes they created.

Just as every wave of the turbulent ocean, striking the soft beach sands leaves behind a mark; so, can you. Just believe in yourself and move forward.

I want to close with the ‘last lines’ from the epic movie Contact (1997, starring Jodie Foster) – as she (her character – Dr. Ellie Arroway) answered a question posed by a group of children: Are we alone in the Universe? — “I’ll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So, if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space. Right?”