Everybody Sails Alone

But we can travel side by side
Even if you fail
You know that no one really minds. (KT Tunstall)

Astronomy/Cosmology is something that has always piqued my curiosity. I was watching an episode of "The Universe and Beyond" on the History Channel this afternoon (great series, btw), and it is really fascinating how inconceivably large the Universe is. The show at the Griffith Observatory planetarium in LA pans out from LA to the Earth, to our Solar System, to our Galaxy, to the billions and billions of galaxies out in space just to provide a glimpse at how vast the universe is. When I go to Durango, I can always see millions of stars at night and it's strange to think that some of the stars we see are no longer in existence; that the spark of light I am seeing has travelled several lightyears in order for it to be visible from a small town in SW Colorado on a tiny planet on the edge of a galaxy.

So, contemplating the universe is intriguing, but how does that translate to reality as a member of this organism called society? The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes that life is about being interesting (to yourself) and doing what matters (to you). I mean, you have this one life on this one planet for a relatively short period of time in this incredibly vast universe, what difference does it make?

It's more than just living in the moment, carpe diem-ing and all that. It's thinking about the big picture, about the days when your sitting with your children or your grandchildren. What kind of stories are you going to have? What types of experiences will you share with them? Our lives, however cosmically short they may be, are full of choices, are made up of choices. In the end, these choices are all we really have, or at least the consequences of these choices. So I guess the question is how to decide which choices are the right ones. But that's for you to decide.

"This Way" by Dilated Peoples

This has been the song in my head. This post is also a test to see if Blogger has stopped hating me.

I, I can't live my, can't live my
yeah, I can't live my life this way, continually get high
Instead of runnin 'round, lock one bird down
it's a new day gotta do it big just to get right
show no respect? can't live that way
you hold my check? can't live that way
without my chick on deck? can't live that way
They say what they like, but I've been that way
Our moves calculated through the lens, almost here
Success will be the best revenge
man, from Clint East' to Kanye West
Som can't chill but everyday it says:

This time I made up my mind
This time I'm back on my grind
I know there's things in my life
That I'ma let go starting tonight
I can't live my, I, I can't live my
I can't live my life this way