{"id":22,"date":"2005-05-23T01:10:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-23T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/?p=22"},"modified":"2009-09-23T23:02:26","modified_gmt":"2009-09-24T03:02:26","slug":"look-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/look-up\/","title":{"rendered":"look up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.intute.ac.uk\/hottopics\/spotlight\/images\/PSI31-nebula-1.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1388\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/crab_nebula-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"crab_nebula\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/crab_nebula-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/crab_nebula-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/crab_nebula.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>when was the last time you actually looked up? when was the last time you took a really, really good look at the sky? when was the last time you saw a full <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sunrise\">sunrise<\/a>? when was the last time you saw a full <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Full_moon\">moon<\/a>? when was the last time you saw the rusty red sands of faraway <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mars\">mars<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->the thing is, if you actually look up&#8230;i mean, if you actually stare up at the sky and see the planet mars with your own eyes, and ponder the significance of that observation, it puts things into a different sort of perspective. an almost <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Galileo\">galilean<\/a> perspective. look up sometime and try to catch a glimpse at mars. not for the first time, of course&#8230;but for the first time as &#8220;mars, the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Planet\">planet<\/a>&#8220;. not just as some tiny red speck in the sky, but as the only other (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mars#Life_on_Mars\">nearly<\/a>) inhabitable world in our otherwise vacant <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Solar_system\">solar system<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>and for that matter, when was the last time you considered how long it took <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Light_speed\">light<\/a> from any of those stars to actually reach the backs of your eyes? when was the last time you actually peered back into the seemingly infinite history of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cosmos\">universe<\/a>? before the earth had <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Life\">life<\/a> (and in some cases, before the earth was even <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_the_Earth\">born<\/a>). these are things we rarely consider when our eyes are confined to the more <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Depression_%28mood%29\">trivial<\/a> meddlings of our own humble and relatively marginal existance here on earth.<\/p>\n<p>so take a minute sometime&#8230;look up&#8230;and enjoy the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crab_nebula\">grandeur<\/a> of the universe. enjoy its <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Quasar\">enormity<\/a>. enjoy our <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Origin_of_life\">insignificance<\/a>. then ask yourself whether it really matters that you didn&#8217;t get what you wanted at work today; that you didn&#8217;t score that winning goal; that the girl from the party never called you back; that the dice never rolled your way.<\/p>\n<p>it always amazes me how life seems to change, almost instantly, when we put things back into their proper perspective. when we finally lift our eyes from the ground in front of us and start looking up. when we begin to see the world for what it is, and not what we always wanted it to be. when we take a good, long, rational look at our lives, and figure out exactly what we need to make things better.<\/p>\n<p>worst case scenario?<\/p>\n<p>the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sky\">sky<\/a> is still one unbelievable view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>when was the last time you actually looked up? when was the last time you took a really, really good look at the sky? when was the last time you saw a full sunrise? when was the last time you saw a full moon? when was the last time you saw the rusty red sands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[232,218,233,297],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology","category-life","tag-philosophy","tag-space","tag-time","tag-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>look up - The Rational Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.freedom24.org\/rationalpost\/look-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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