penandpatience

WRITERS WORDS: “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. – Stephen Hawking

OCTOBER 2021 MONTHLY MUSING

PLANET EARTH – HOME SWEET HOME!

What word or words best describe a home?  A general dictionary definition describes home as “the place where one lives permanently especially as a member of a family or household.” Basically, for most human beings, home is the domicile where we leave and return on a regular basis, coming and going from various responsibilities and activities. Homes vary in size, description and can range from Apartments, Condos, Houses, Mansions, Townhomes, Tents, Trailers, Lean-tos, Street Corners, Shelters or any applicable residence where we “hang our hats.”

We mortals sip morning beverages of choice usually before leaving our whatever home never thinking while we are drinking, all humanity lives in the same large home – the Billion Years old Planet Earth. A planet that spins in orbit around what we learned at an early age, is the Sun. We learned in Grade School about the Solar System and Universe and the seven planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto) that revolve around the Sun. However, for many people, except the world-wide, scientific communities, we continue with chosen daily challenges blissfully unaware of life on a planet that is continually spinning in orbit. We assume Earth will exist into infinity.

I muse… we are all Earth’s housekeepers.  Some earth residents are environmentally conscious maintaining their abodes and attempt to sweep and keep earth’s “floors” clean. Other residents go about their daily business oblivious to the fact earth’s residents reside in all countries with different environments in one shared, gigantic household.

I consider some mind-boggling history taken from a September 2021 issue of National Geographic Magazine: “In 1543 the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus theorized that Earth orbited the sun, and scientists have been expanding our knowledge of the solar system ever since. Digital technology has provided a significant boost in recent decades, helping us identify previously unknown, heliocentric, and highly dynamic objects that shed new light on how our solar system evolved—and how it can be orderly and chaotic at the same time.”

Wow!  Not something that comes into many minds on a daily basis.  Here is additional thought- provoking information again perused from the National Geographic Society:

• Our star, the sun was formed by the collapse of an interstellar cloud. In the wake of its creation, a volatile and rotating disk of dust and gas was left behind—the beginning of our solar system.
• There is thought of lurking danger. Objects crossing Earth’s orbit are potentially hazardous. Experts are studying how to use spacecraft to divert them before they might impact Earth.
• An interesting statement regarding Planet Neptune. Like Planet Jupiter, it has massive storms with 700 mile an hour winds; Its moon Triton has geysers that spew nitrogen.

And…yet, here we are enduring our home’s various twenty-first century’s woes. Hey, don’t we have enough to worry about?  Historically, our Earth Home has endured plagues, etc., but again, our entire world is experiencing and fighting the latest, life- threatening contagion- the Covid-19 virus.  Worldwide, weather traumas continue to plague us–“water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” (I couldn’t resist that statement😊 We get caught up in daily calamities, point fingers, gripe, politicize others actions and beliefs, and this, that and this other thing that might be communicated by over- zealous media.  And our forever Home, Planet Earth, continues to travel in orbit.  I agree with the late Stephen Hawking. Let’s all look up at the stars and be grateful for this wonderful home we all share.

It’s October. Happy Halloween to all!