There will come a day when our planet Earth will cease to exist. The place we, every single one of us, call home, will no longer be. Long after the last breath of a human has been taken, our sun, which now gives us life, will be what forever ends any chance of existence when it consumes our planet whole. The passing away of the pale blue dot will not be a blip on anyone’s radar, it won’t send a red flag to the universe, it will simply just be gone.
When we up look into the night sky and all of its glory, the specs that sparkle down on us are not just for our entertainment. They don’t burn brightly from birth to death because some far away planet inhabits millions of gazers. They don’t fall in on themselves and create a black hole when it’s not in our favorite constellation. Alas, the stars that we see could have a much greater purpose. They could, just like our sun, be fueling life for alien civilizations, plants, crops, water and more. For this reason, the stars give me hope.
The stars are a constant reminder that there could be another “Earth” out there that has things figured out much better than we do. That maybe their societies do not feud and kill by the masses simply because of difference of religion or skin color. That maybe they do not have religion at all, simply love and acceptance and knowledge known worldwide. The stars give me hope that maybe a civilization exists in which all of its creatures coexist equally, and not one being is inferior to another. That the planet they call home is never underappreciated or taken for granted, that they properly take care of it each and every day. Maybe an alien star has an alien life that has neither abused nor neglected their technological advances or fallen deep into this strange concept called debt. Maybe they have not allowed the thing that we call “money” dictate their entire existence.
The stars give me hope that somewhere else in the universe, someone or something has created a purpose different from our own. That their day to day life is not mostly work and little play, that they don’t live for the weekend or an expensive vacation. That the things we hold closest to our hearts are what they are constantly and continuously enriched in. Naïve as it may be, the stars give me hope that there may be a world out there where evil ceases to exist and life is lived on a perpetual high.
The stars give me hope that when our last day comes, another planet will still have inhabitants. That they can gaze into the night sky and observe its perfection, just as I do every night. The stars give me hope that if maybe we have messed up our one chance here on Earth, the do-over is not only available but in progress in some distant corner of the universe.
