Surface Earth: the view from outside

I have read a lot for longer than I can recall in an effort to find the “truth”.
I have read even more in an effort to understand the origin of people hurting each other in an effort to promote eradicating the origins.
I have often and most times believed that we are mistaken in dividing ourselves.
Today I came across a piece in a newspaper, The Asbury Park Press, page AA7, that crystallized why I think and why I question and why I blog. Honestly, I first began blogging in an effort to launch what I call “The Zipcode Exchange”, strengthening from within, zipcode by zipcode, until we reach across the strands of the web and there is no place or person left untouched.
Then I began to reveal other thoughts and questions of life and God that caused me to create The Zipcode Exchange to begin with….and now, I want to share several fundamental reasons, which resonated as I read the article entitled: “For Astronauts, Earth view reveals the big picture.”
“It was the only color we could see in the universe…`We’re living on a tiny little dust mote in left field on a rather insignifcant galaxy. And basically this it it for humans. It strikes me that it’s a shame that we’re squabbling over oil and borders.”
-Bill Anders
Apollo 8, “whose photos of Earth became famous”
“The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes…If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth.”
–Anousheh Ansari, “Iranian-American space tourist who flew last year to the international space station”
“I think you can’t go to space and not be changed, in many ways.”
“All of the teachings of the Bible that talk about the creator and his creation taken on new meaning when you canview the details of the Earth from that perspective. So it didn’t change my faith per se, the content of it, but it just enhanced it, it made it even more real.”
-Jeff Williams, “spent 6 months on the space station and set a record for most Earth photos taken”
“You change because you see your life differntly than when you live on the surface every day…We are so involeved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don’t think the average person realizes the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Ewarth because of the experiences I’ve had traveling in space.”
–Eileen Collings, “first femal space shuttle commander”
“I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth.”
-Wally Schirra, “who flew around Earth on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions in the 1960s”.
**All quotes compliments of Sunday’s Asbury Park Press article as referenced above.
There have been moments in my life when I have forgotten, but most of the time, I see myself somewhere from deep space, just one more head poking into the atmosphere, feet on our Earth, with no clue as to why it is so.
Namaste.
Peace.
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