As I enjoyed my nightly “medication” last evening (a bowl of the indica strain Paris followed by a bowl of 9 Pound Hammer) in the company again of Jupiter and Saturn (Jupiter’s the bright object almost center, Saturn’s the dimmer object to its left) —
— I had another of those “experiences”. For starters, it struck me that the reason I can see those two planets is because of the sunlight reflecting off of them. In other words, light had to travel from the sun to Jupiter then reflect from Jupiter to Earth — and me.
The idea of that — the pure physics of light starting in one place then ending up at the back of my corneas — there’s a lot happening there that we take entirely for granted — as if it was all magic that we see what we see. The nuts and bolts of existence fascinate the hell out of me.
Though the light pollution in LA makes star-gazing fairly impossible, the fact is — regardless of whether or not I can see it, there are amazing things happening right in front of my unseeing eyes.
Beyond those two planets in their orbits around the star we share there are celestial bodies. Neptune is out there. So’s Uranus and planet/planetoid Pluto. The Kuiper Belt is out there. Beyond that there’s the Oort Cloud and beyond that is the end of our heliosphere — where our little corner of the cosmos ends and everything else begins.
That’s what struck me as the cannabis smoke curled and wafted: I was staring up at literally everything.
Everything that is (and was). And I am part of it.
So are you. So is every creature and thing on our planet. We are all part of this remarkable experience — our awareness that we “are”. Now, if only we could make more of that collective awareness experience happiness and contentment instead of fear or pain. That’s the challenge of seeing more of the world and our place in it. It obligates us to action.
But, hey — what’s more exciting than that?