Welcome

I keep trying to keep up on posting interesting and thoughtful things, but I keep failing. Failure is good. It teaches us what we need to improve. I have tried to keep a professional blog, but that lost momentum when life got in the way. I have a personal journal, but no one really wants to see that nonsense. So, with this incarnation, even if it accomplishes nothing but centralizing my daily blogroll, I will be satisfied. But, my hope is that it will be an acceptable place to discuss both professional and personal interests in a civilized fashion.

A note about the blog title.
Most people are familiar with Carl Sagan's reflections on the pale blue dot. I selected this name to look beyond our own sphere, but also within it. This boisterous wet ball of which we are so fond is so strikingly insignificant. But, we're well-aware of how insignificant it is because we so rarely stop to think outside the walls around us, the political borders we fall in, the social groupings we build for our own comfort, the lies or truths we invent to make us think we are in control of our own thoughts. Relative size, big or small, has no impact on our perception, and our knowledge that the Earth is merely dancing on an arm of an unspeakably big galaxy in a profoundly vast universe has absolutely no impact on our lives. At least not for most of us. It doesn't change the hunger in our bellies or the fire in our loins or the love and hate we manufacture in our hearts. It doesn't change how unsettling it is to fight with one's lover, nor how paralyzing economic uncertainty is, nor does it change how our lives are impacted by the ravenous desire for power experienced by the few and the bloodthirsty.

It can be easy to lose sight of the real importance of the very small when attempting to impress the transience of one's place among the mindbogglingly enormous.

One day, the universe will pass from existence and nothing we have ever done or will ever do will leave even the slightest glimmer of a memory. Armed with this reality, it is more vital than ever to ensure that those who can experience and remember what we are going through now do so in as much peace and as much comfort as possible.

What is this blue dot, and how can it be our home unless we are willing to be homemakers?