"We Are All Connected"

Long ago, somewhere in our galaxy, a star somewhat similar to that of our sun destroyed itself in a massive and brilliant explosion known as a supernova.

Image of Cassiopeia A, a supernova "remnant"

After billions of years of burning brightly, that star's hydrogen fuel ran out and the core of the star could not sustain it's own gravity any longer. It collapsed in on itself at an incredibly high velocity and subsequently blasted off the outer layers in a magnificent release of energy.

These outer layers contained heavier elements which had been forged through the life of the star. These heavier elements are noteworthy because if you look around you right now, whether it be at your hand, a pet or the floor beneath you, you are surrounded by them. All the elements that make life possible derive from stars.

“We are all made of star stuff” the comsologist Carl Sagan once said. Pretty cool, eh?

All humans, all animals, all plants and even the chunk of rock we call Earth, share the same atomic mother and in that vein we are deeply related. This isn't clear just looking around us. If anything, it seems that you and I are different. And my cat is not me.

As different as we seem to be on the surface, whether it be by gender, race, opinions or even species, the atoms in our bodies come from the same place.

Cheesy and overplayed as it may sound, we are all connected.

LIVING IN DISCONNECTION

On a day to day basis, I think we all feel disconnected from the world we live in. Even with people all around us, whether it be family or a large city, we can still feel as if we are separated by something.

The mind will divide others in to categories and groups that make reality easier to understand and predict. My cat is a separate species of animal according to my mind-made category, thus we are not the same.

This low-level thinking is important and necessary to understand the world around us. But how often do we even contemplate the connectedness of ourselves to this world?

It's not woo-woo spiritual stuff we're talking about here. This is scientific fact. Now that we can prove that everyone is relatively the same, made up of different combinations of molecules and atoms, it is easier to take a step back and look at what that really means.

AN EXERCISE IN “TAKING A STEP BACK”

Take a moment and imagine how big the earth is compared to ourselves. Pretty hard to imagine how massive the earth is at roughly 8,000 miles in diameter and a mass of 6x1024 kilograms. It's quite a bit larger than you or I.

Now take our huge earth and compare it to the sun. Glance at the picture on below for scale. The sun is roughly 1.3 million times the volume of earth. Pretty massive.

Now think of how close our sun is to our closest neighboring sun, Proxima Centauri, which is roughly 4.2 light years away. If I could travel there, at the speed of light (186,000/miles per second), it would take me 4 years. Our closest neighbor is far away.

Then think of how long it would take to travel to the center of our galaxy (about 27,000 years), to cross our entire galaxy (about 100,000 years), to the closest neighboring galaxy (2.5 millions years), to go beyond our “supercluster” of galaxies (estimated at 100 million years) and then to the edge of the known universe (guesses range at 46-47 billion years).

How big are we in comparison?

We are an inconceivable speck, riding around on another inconceivable speck, circling another speck, amongst billions of other specks, surrounded by billions of other specks clustered together.

This simple exercise is not reason to feel bad or insignificant. Quite the opposite actually. It's a refresher that we are 6 billion (or is it 7 now?) individuals running around on this little blue dot, all on the same little boat.

For better or worse, we are stuck with each other here on Earth. We, who were all created in the belly of a star, feel the same feelings, share the same pain and live in similar conditions. No matter how badly the urge is to feel that we are deeply divided amongst any religion, race, country, culture or opinions, we can't escape that we are deeply connected to eachother.

I know I know, this is about as cheesy as it gets for me. “Feel connected” and “See the best in others” isn't really an original thought. It's super new-agey and somewhat vague. Guilty as charged.

However, I can't think of a more fulfilling feeling, of a more rejuvenating energy, that derives itself from the feelings of a universal link.