Columnist Henry Schulte says that each person needs to make the most of their life on Earth.
I recently read a comment made by the man who had told us for so many years “to boldly go where no one has gone before.” I found his comments extremely powerful and profound.
After William Shatner finally experienced a real life, albeit brief encounter with space, he said, “But when I finally arrived out there, the splendor was absent. The feeling wasn’t the warmth and glow that required poetry to express; it was ominous. It was the opposite of life. It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered.”
The “Star Trek” actor who played Capt. Kirk went on to further add that eventually a feeling of hope returned, “…we have one gift that other species do not: We are aware — not only of our insignificance but of the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant.”
I have often placed my own mind in outer space, perhaps like many of you, looking back and visualizing our blue and white round rock floating in the middle of nowhere. Then I used my imagination further and started zooming closer to Earth. Seeing the oceans expand, mountains taking shape, rivers, trees and snow. I continued onward until I found myself on a busy street filled with bustling people all involved in their own minds, their own worlds, oblivious to Earth’s precarious position as being nothing but a floating object surrounded by a sea of blackness.
“We are aware — not only of our insignificance but of the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant,” William Shatner said after his real-life trip into outer space.
It’s at those times, like so many of us do, I question again what it’s all about. All the things we humans worry about all seem so empty.
People in poorer countries must focus on survival and where their next meal is coming from. Human beings in corrupt dictatorships worry if they blink wrong, could they and their family be killed. In America, we all have our individual struggles, but there’s plenty of food, we still have freedoms, though rapidly eroding. And for the most part, our lights and heat stay on.
At times I ask why I even find it necessary to voice an opinion about anything. Does it matter? Not really. But then again, if you don’t participate in life and try to make a difference, no matter how small, you’re just existing. With only one shot and no do overs, it’s imperative to make some sort of contribution, whether it be just reading to kids in a library, helping out in a senior home or writing a column expressing what your views are and hoping it has some upshot on something.
I have a friend who said he loved my columns, but added that it was only preaching to the choir and he’s right. Will I, or anyone on the opposite side of my views change their mind? In this very divided and crazy world, it’s unlikely. It has happened but not a common occurrence. But that stuff is just politics.
From the darkness of space, all the things we fuss over doesn’t exist. None of it matters one iota. Do we question or worry about how our feet are held in place by something we can’t see, feel or touch but know it’s there? We likely have all known the passing of someone close. All of life’s problems go away at that point, and we follow it up with, “They’re in a better place.” So does it matter how we fret about it all?
My answer is yes. It does matter.
Humans need to engage in the world around them, whether it be politics, being involved in a church, helping a cancer victim, being a doctor or nurse, working as a first responder or teacher, being a good parent — and perhaps the most important role — just being a good human being.
I had always wanted to go to space. As a typical boy, the idea of being an astronaut would have been a dream come true. As I grew older and realized my math skills alone or lack thereof, would never allow me to don a space suit, the idea dissipated.
At this age, I think about the trillions of other worlds out there going through the same thing we do every day. We’ll never know those planets or how similar or different they are. The vastness of the universe was designed that way. Each world has to grow and develop at their own pace. Planets and its inhabitants would be destroyed from outside influence introducing technology they’re not ready for.
No matter how much I want to believe it, that we might have visitors hanging around Earth, we have yet to see real proof. It’s not out of the question that there are planets where its inhabitants are millions of years ahead of us. Just look what we accomplished in less than one hundred years.
We’re holding something in our hands we can use to communicate in a blink to the other side of the planet. Imagine 1,000 years from now what we could do.
My guess is, if we do have “flying saucers” here, those advanced civilizations sent out drones of sorts to explore the universe. But what do I know?
But if there’s any truth to it, I wonder what they’re thinking watching what’s going on. “What are those idiots doing?” They’ll likely question how a planet so rich in natural resources can’t properly feed all its people or why some humans find the need to take over lands and enslave people and just can’t leave well enough alone. Would they be laughing at us, or would they have sympathy?
Whatever the case might be, it doesn’t matter. We are responsible for our own actions, and without participating in life, we would just bounce off of each other with no real direction. We need a purpose.
In “City Slickers” (1991), Curly (Jack Palance) told Mitch (Billy Crystal) the meaning of life is, “Just one thing.” He never did tell Mitch what that one thing was because that one thing is different for each one of us. We’ve been blessed with life, and we just need to make the most of it, as the saying goes.
Henry Schulte welcomes questions or comments at hschulteopinions@gmail.com.
