Have you ever flown in a commercial airplane? If so, did you notice that once you were “in the air” — far above the highways and byways — it was impossible to look out the window and see people on the ground? In fact, when that plane is cruising at an average altitude of 36,000 feet (that’s nearly 7 miles up in the air), even a person standing on the highest mountain peak on earth would be invisible.
Come to think about it, even if you are standing on good old terra firma, the chances of detecting an individual seven miles away are nil.
Yet many of us see ourselves as GIANTS — and we constantly strive to convince others of not only our visibility, but our importance as well. We are convinced that our thoughts and our actions are worthy of undivided attention. We dismiss the fact that under the circumstances mentioned above, we could not even prove we exist!
I happen to be a fan of apocalyptic movies. In many of them, the starring individual is one of the last human beings on earth and his/her survival is the primary goal. Occasionally, in some movies, another survivor shows up. Of course, depending on the script, this can turn out to be good or bad. However, one thing that has never happened — the last survivors don’t spend their time discussing political and/or religious views. Their “focus” is far beyond personal persuasions.
Yet in REAL life, because so many of us live in comparative comfort, we argue and bicker and FIGHT over skin color, religious beliefs, political ideals, climate change, and/or whatever other topic we feel strongly about. We consider ourselves the authority on innumerable subjects and strive to convince others of our superiority.
Perhaps it would be well if we occasionally considered/recognized how insignificant we are in the big scheme of things — and took note of the fact that, from seven miles up, we don’t even exist!
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Photo by Leon Macapagal from Pexels
Nan's Notebook 