Brain Food #719
Like letters, we are atoms
Thoughts of the day
In a recent Brain Food post, I wrote about how writing a letter to yourself can help diminish your present wants and problems, while reminding you of how far you have come.
The master of this thinking, of course, is Carl Sagan, who viewed the world through the vast lens of the cosmos, showing us how our entire planet, containing everything and everyone we love, is merely a pale blue dot floating through space.
When I was writing about letters, I was thinking about the meaning of the word ‘letter’. Letters are also the basic components, the atoms of words. Letters uniquely combined can form words, and words uniquely combined can form characters, stories, poetry, worlds. And, letter-writing can be a solitary exercise, a reminder that we, too, are both made of atoms but are also atoms in the world we participate in and contribute to.
Sagan wrote, “The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.”
It is exactly this unique composition of atoms that not only makes us who we are but also predetermines some of our serendipity in a chaotic world. It can be found in the unique combination of skills that we all have, either through talent or through experience, and the unique set of people we have access to in our lives.
When looking at things in isolation, and a short distance, they may not make much sense. But together, the bigger picture comes together, as long as we are ready to take part in it, and to let some luck in.
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