"The Human Predicament, Explained In Under 5 Minutes"

You've read enough of my writing. You deserve to listen to someone else today. Let's hear from one of my heroes, Carl Sagan.

Sagan was the first scientific educator to go from lowly nerd to mega-celebrity. Sagan was "The Science Guy" before Bill Nye was even around. His most notable achievement was his hit TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (recently remade by Sagan's former student Neil deGrasse Tyson). Thanks to Cosmos, Sagan birthed a generation of young scientists by educating them about space, evolution, and scientific history. Sagan had an uncanny gift for imbuing facts with poetic prose that educated your mind and brought a tear to your eye.

He was less well-known for his books, but Sagan was a phenomenal writer. He wrote the novel Contact, which was made into a movie staring Jodie Foster. He also wrote a handful of non-fiction books that focused on science and society.

My favourite bit of Sagan's trademark wordplay comes from the book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. The title Pale Blue Dot was inspired by the photo taken by the Voyager I space probe. The photo shows Earth, a mere pixel, against the black backdrop of space. Hence, the photo's name, "Pale Blue Dot".

The image is rather lackluster. However, you can leave it to Sagan to pen a stirring description of the photo that explains what it means to be a human being. And, if that wasn't enough, it takes him less than 5 minutes to perfectly illustrate the human predicament.

In this video, Sagan's voice can be heard reading from Pale Blue Dot. Put your head phones on and grab your Kleenex.

Today, you should meditate upon how trivial our struggles are. Meditate upon how we need each other to survive. Think about how we live upon "a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."

Given our predicament, it's about time we all started getting along.