Tylor Lang The Most Astounding Fact

This is a short speech by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson:


"The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth the atoms that make up the human body are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them went unstable in their later years they collapsed and then exploded scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas cloud that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up – many people feel small because they’re small and the Universe is big – but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant you want to feel like a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive…"

This speech connects to my idea of how life works.  We are all a part of this universe. Everything we are, from our actions to our emotions, all function in similarity to everything else around us in this sentient being.  The universe is forever seeking equilibrium.  The universe is constantly expanding and contracting; constantly recreating and destroying; constantly moving on.  Such is how I see life.  If I have a bad day, I turn that bad day into a lesson of contraction and move on to a good week of expansion.  If I have a bad week, I turn it into a good month.  If I have a bad month, I turn it into a good year and move on with my life.  Time and pressure is what makes everything that we are.  We are all composed of the same things in this universe.  We are the stardust of celestial beings from eons ago, and as members of this being that is the universe, the greatest of beings, everything we are is subject to its rules.  We are created to serve a purpose, and we will live forever as changed matter, and our spirits will once again find themselves among the stars, fueling this change, this constant expansion and contraction, this living and dying, this moving on.