Earth: A Moving Experience

I can't help but be inspired by any picture of the Earth from space.

Yes, the vivid blues and whites are no doubt beautiful, but there is just something more to it. In that beautiful intersection between art and science, I find that staring at the big blue spaceship we ride on to be a spiritual experience.

It seems so obvious to me that Earth is an inspiring little thing to look. But let's go down the list here.

Our planet is just close enough to the sun to keep us warm. Any closer and our water would boil and there goes life on planet Earth. If we were any farther away, the water would turn to ice and again, life becomes extremely difficult in these conditions.

Water is so abundant on our planet. Just look at all the blue. It's a bunch. Over two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by this rather simple molecule that makes life possible.

It's ozone layer, which you can see very distinctly from most pictures taken in low earth orbit, protects us from a great deal of the dangers that the vacuum of space is filled with.

To think that close to 7 billion people are running around, waking up, sleeping, working, crying, loving, writing, wondering, thinking and living on that little ball is unfathomable. Each human being supported by the fruits of the mothership, planet Earth.

And that's why I am so moved every time I see a picture of Earth from space.  That's why when I see it in a magazine, or a doctor's office, I stop for a second and lose myself in it.

When you know all the crazy things there are to know about the little old rock we live on, it makes it seem just a little more amazing. And then when you get to see it in all it's glory, it really hits home that we are a bunch of lucky mother fuckers to have experienced life on it.