Big Picture

Life is bigger than a Netflix price-hike. It is bigger, even, than the biggest argument or most long-standing grudge. Every problem comes with a choice: to care or not to care. It is a hazard to care too much, as much as it is a hazard to care too little. There is no right or wrong approach; just choice and consequence. Impressions are far from immutable: given enough time, most things are forgotten, fade into unimportance, are altered, or replaced. Evolution is inevitable for anything that is not trapped in some literal or figurative amber. The blue of a blue sky is never felt with such intensity as when change is imminent-- a move, a voyage, or on a dramatic scale, a death. Clouds are a beautiful, amazing planetary phenomena-- acres and acres of crimped and wispy shapes scattered across that incredible blue, reflected in the glass of the tallest city buildings, soaring out from between drab and dingy abandoned structures, and illuminated gold by the rising morning sun. To think of clouds and stars is a good and faithful reminder of the briefness of one's time on this planet, a reminder of the relative unimportance of most things we consider to be important. Answers, explanations, curiosities, the beautiful, the strange and the wondrous are readily discovered when the mind is fully present and ready to receive: be still, look, listen, consider the stars, and suddenly, the blue sky will leave you breathless.