Microcosm of a Macrocosm

Sometimes I feel depressed about things, like my health problems, not having a creative job, having to live so far away from my boyfriend, not being able to pay my bills, or missing loved ones that have passed away.  You might think, "Wow, that's a lot to be depressed about."  Or maybe you're thinking, "Wow, she really likes to bitch and whine."  (If so, you suck!  lol)

But when you start to feel down, or maybe just when you're really bored, it helps to try and keep things in perspective.  If you stare at the tip of your finger, you can see your fingerprint.  If you keep staring, maybe a little bit closer, you can see little bumps of skin cells.  If you had super-powered microscope eyes, you could see even deeper and see the clusters of eukaryotic cells that compose your skin cells.

I dunno about you, but if I look at that cell structure long enough, it starts to look kind of like a little world itself.  I wonder if we could shrink down to molecular size, what it would be like to enter a cell?  The parts of a cell are somewhat similar to what we'd find in a town:  mitochondria are like little factories, the endoplasmic reticulum is like a super highway, and the nucleus could be city hall where all the decisions for the area are laid out.  (Can you tell that I used to be a bit of a science nerd back in the day?)

Cell structure is one thing, but microcosms don't end there.  We are in a microcosm right now.  Since I've moved back to Long Island, I can actually see stars in the sky again.  And seeing stars reminds me of how big the universe is, how far away those stars might be, and what lies beyond them.  I love going to planetariums that show us how small the Earth is, in terms of the size of the Milky Way, and how small the Milky Way is, compared to the rest of the Universe.

One of my favorite singer/artist/musician/phenom people, Jason Mraz, recently posted a REALLY cool link on his blog that I found both inspiring and somewhat frightening.  It's just a simple flash animation, and the actual drawings within it aren't very detailed or well executed.  But the point gets across VERY well and really shows us how small we can look on a molecular and QUARK level, while at the same time shows us how deep and vast the universe is - and how little we know about the universe's expansiveness!  I definitely recommend everyone take a moment to realize how small we are, and how petty our daily problems are in the grand scheme of things.

The Scale of the Universe