We’re Just Not as Important as We Think We Are

That is so true. I recognized that long before retirement. I had accounts that would come to me with complaints or requests for favors. Some of them became friends, but I always told myself none would reach out after I left my position. I was right. That's why we have to take care of ourselves.

Places like the Grand Canyon, Alaska, Pike's Peak, the Rainforest, etc. also show us that the world is so much bigger than we are.
 
@dilettante …I can get very very disturbed at the destruction of the earth. It comforts me to know how little time we have been here…and that the earth will go on without us. Sometimes I need the perspective. The day before I did this particular hike I went to another place I know to stand among huge petrified trees. This land has not seen that kind of climate or water for eons. Once again telling me that this..too…will pass.
 
Muskrat said:
@dilettante …I can get very very disturbed at the destruction of the earth. It comforts me to know how little time we have been here…and that the earth will go on without us. Sometimes I need the perspective. The day before I did this particular hike I went to another place I know to stand among huge petrified trees. This land has not seen that kind of climate or water for eons. Once again telling me that this..too…will pass.
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I feel the same way for different reasons; there's something comforting in knowing I'm not important in the grand scheme, that life will go on before, after, around me. It let's me just be and not worry so much.
 
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Muskrat said:
@dilettante …I can get very very disturbed at the destruction of the earth. It comforts me to know how little time we have been here…and that the earth will go on without us. Sometimes I need the perspective. The day before I did this particular hike I went to another place I know to stand among huge petrified trees. This land has not seen that kind of climate or water for eons. Once again telling me that this..too…will pass.
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Thanks.

I find it worrying how big this self-hatred trend has become though. Yet it might not be unique to these times. There has to be a reason why both religious and civil law has prohibited suicide and infanticide for millennia, and promoted things such as higher powers who made us in their image.

Even those who live in our crowded plastic and concrete warrens should understand that we're a manifestation of nature. We are not apart from it or outside of it.

But concern and falling afoul of dismay are real things. The big picture is so much larger than any of us can come close to grasping.
 
Medusa said:
I feel the same way for different reasons; there's something comforting in knowing I'm not important in the grand scheme, that life will go on before, after, around me. I let's me just be and not worry so much.
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Recognizing our place in reality is comforting. Accepting ourselves as we really are is called congruence in psychological circles. There is comfort in congruence. It is a healthy state of mind.
 
Apparently understanding our insignificance has done little to halt the greed and destruction we have caused the world around us. We might get a glimpse of an ego less state of mind but it quickly ends and we are right back trying to satisfy our desires. The quick cosmic reminder will hopefully blossom into intentional living. I am still working at it. :)
 
I figured out many years ago how insignificant we are, and I'm OK with that. It's one of the reasons I never worry about the big things, I have near zero influence on global events, not that I'm apathetic, just very pragmatic. I focus my life on the small things, the happenings of life I can more directly influence.

Globally I am but a spec, best I can do is live large in that spec.
 
Well we humans are important while we're here, alert, up and doing this n that. Creating magnificent helpful things. How many of nature's grand 'creations' have created anything progressive. Beautiful as they are, aren't they only MOSTLY for fantastic, unchangeable landscape viewing?
 
jujube said:
I was once told to put my hand in a bucket of water and then pull it out. See how much of an impression is left behind?
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Somebody misinformed you how it's done. You gotta add the concrete first before dunking the hand. My hand and footprints are still in my concrete driveway. My wife had a fit over it, so did the concrete guys, but those prints will be there long after we are gone. Best attempt at Eternity I could come up with. :eek:)
 
The Doddering Biker said:
Somebody misinformed you how it's done. You gotta add the concrete first before dunking the hand. My hand and footprints are still in my concrete driveway. My wife had a fit over it, so did the concrete guys, but those prints will be there long after we are gone. Best attempt at Eternity I could come up with. :eek:)
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Just as long as nobody asks me if I want a pair of cement boots, I'm fine......
 
Twostep said:
If we are just dust in the wind then why are we here? Why should we bother to make a difference instead of going with the flow?
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The way I see it, by just being here we make a difference whether we know it or not. Sometimes life can only be understood looking back over our lives.
 
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