30.Suspended In A Sunbeam
(Spoken excerpt from the 1994 book 'Pale Blue Dot' by Carl
Sagans)
...Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived
there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and
emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the
momentary masters of a fraction of a dot
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one
corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants
of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how
eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that
we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged
by this point of pale light
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark
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