The sky is no longer the limit

Occasionally, there are photographs that carry such human weight that they defy the retelling of the epics that created them. This is one such picture.



This beautiful yellow ball makes everything in our little bubble happen. It powers the lives of the smallest cells and the grandest civilizations. It's the source of all the energy behind all the warmaking and peacemaking and lovemaking in all of human history.

Look again.



That little black smudge is the space shuttle Atlantis.

We didn't get here by praying. We didn't get here by sacrificing lambs. We didn't get here by dancing around a fire. We didn't get here by beating drums. We didn't get here by growing herbs. We didn't get her by reading sacred verses by moonlight. We got here by studying and learning and observing and recording and building. We got here by putting aside our differences and working together to research and fund and build a machine capable of flinging us beyond the boundaries of this sphere. We got here by thinking bigger. We got here by being aware of our relative insignificance and also how little that matters. We got here by getting smarter and working harder and depending on our own capabilites and those of our fellow man. We got here by leaning on our own understanding.

This, my friends, is wonder, and wonder is my only religion.