Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County Utah
The sharp edge of early summer is very hot, dry, and windy.
PALE BLUE DOT EXPRESS
As I am writing this journal, I glance up from time to time to the images on the wall above my desk. They are bookends to my thinking. The large picture is already out of date – from the Hubble telescope – a very small section of the infinite sky – now superseded by images from the Webb telescope, which testify to what still lies beyond the beyond.
The strip of canvas refers to Now – the immediate concerns with coping one day at a time – un jour a la fois – a reminder that as soon as I finish writing this, I must hustle off to town to resupply – company is coming and the cupboard is bare.
In between those images is a blurry copy of a photo taken by Voyager One – The space probe launched by NASA in the early darkness of September 5, 1977. Meant to explore our solar system up close for 5 years, it has been sending back information for almost 48 years. Its power source is almost finished, but it goes on hurtling out there for longer a time and further a distance than we can conceive. Into infinity forever. Amazing.
On February 14, 1990, the camera aboard Voyager One was turned back toward its launching pad. Six billion kilometers away, a pale blue dot could be seen. A small pinpoint flung out into the unimaginable mystery of space.
Earth.
Everything human beings have ever been was there.
And I know I was a passenger onboard that pale blue dot express that day.
Along for the ride of a lifetime.
We can no longer see the pale blue dot express.
But I am still aboard.
Headed into town for groceries.
Footnotes – If you want to do a little more pondering on your own, here are two major sources of information and images: