Our Universe with its countless planets, stars and galaxies is with one-word spectacular. It is vast, possibly infinite, about 91 billion light years in diameter just the observable part at the present time, most likely with a beginning 13.7 to 15 billion years ago and maybe also with an end.
An infinitesimal dot in the Universe is our planet. With a little bit more than 510 million km2 surface area is the only astronomical object known to harbour life with over 5 billion estimated species since life was initiated. How amazing is that? One little drop in the immense sea of the Universe. That is our home. A home to over 7.8 billion humans. How lucky are we? To be given the privilege to live in one of the most beautifully improbable spots in our galaxy. The Milky Way. A galaxy, that contains somewhat from 200 billion to a trillion stars and most likely at least 100 billion planets. One of these planets is ours. Earth. Have you seen pictures of the earth taken from the outer space? The colours, green and blue, turquoise and brown and white. Simply astonishing!
That is our world. A world full of colour and variety and diversity. You can see it, hear it, touch it, smell it, taste it. The sunrises and the sunsets, the oceans and the continents, the green fields and the desserts, the mountains and the valleys, the icebergs and the beaches, the lakes and the rivers, the forests and the flowers, the animals and the fishes, the birds and the butterflies and everything else small or big, that is our world. A small marvel.
And yet it seems, as we are facing numerous problems living in it. We don’t give the impression, that we manage our life very well. Although it appears, that we are amongst the very few fortunate beings in our vicinity to exist, we do not seem to cope easily enough. As if we are lacking something, as if we don’t really grasp it and we can’t keep it together.
We don’t look utterly happy about being alive, on the contrary we look rather inadequate in the whole art of living, confused, lost. Life is a gift, but we barely seem to appreciate it. We don’t make the most of it, we do not enjoy it to the fullest, we do not cherish the moments, that are given to us, we don’t seize the day, we don’t find nor understand ourselves, we don’t look after ourselves nor the others, in a few words we do not deal very successfully with our existence. Why is that? Why can’t we make it work?
That is a riddle, that has always puzzled me. For many years since I was a kid, I’ve been studying our history and trying to comprehend mankind with all the contradictions and imbalances, that demonstrates. It still comes as a surprise to me, how is it possible one species to be capable of the most incredible achievements, while at the same time to exhibit the most legendary stupidity. To present examples of the worst atrocities and simultaneously of the most extraordinary splendour.
As the years passed by that riddle, that wondering grew bigger and became a complain and then turned into anger and now it needs to come out and find its way to all of you, to be heard. Will it be original? No. Will it change the world? Definitely not. But it is my voice. A small voice at first, now a scream, a loud, blasting scream in my head, that rips the air and shouts, why? again and again and most predominately, what can we do? Me, you, all of us. For crying out loud we are almost 8 billion people, there must be something we can do. At least to try. That’s the most important. To try. Even when you fail, don’t give up, stand up and just move on. Always forward. Discover that remarkable force inside of you and go on. You will strike out many times. So what? Keep going. It is the effort that counts, not the victory. Is it difficult? So what? Keep going. There are no rewards for the easy stuff. And I’ll tell you a secret. There are no prizes at all. Just the satisfaction, that you did it. That you rose to the occasion, you stood tall and honoured your name. You don’t need rewards, you are not a puppet, you are a human.