Oh God.
I seem to be saying that a lot lately.
The enormity of it all.
One million seconds is about 11 and a half days.
One billion seconds is about 32 years.
One trillion seconds is 32,000 years.
One million pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower nearly a mile high.
One billion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower almost 870 miles high.
One trillion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower about 870,000 miles high. That is the same distance as going to the moon, coming back to Earth, then heading to the moon again.
One million ants would weigh a little over 6 pounds.
One billion ants would weight over 3 tons. That is a little less than the weight of an elephant.
One trillion ants would weigh over 3,000 tons.
These are countable. Measurable. Quantifiable.
And then there is the Universe. That place in which we live.
Immeasurable. Boundless and unending.
All the good gifts around us. Oh, what a beautiful thing when I can breathe them in and feel the enormity of the wonder. Some might call it miraculous. These everyday gifts.
At other times though, I am reminded of the benightedness.
All the things which are limiting and restrictive. Those things which come from hate.
And I don’t understand how miracles and hatred can exist in the same place together. A paradox?
The Universe is full of them, it seems. A place where nothing lasts forever. But it is also a place where everything lasts forever.
This bit of infinity we find ourselves in.
And on days like this, I find myself saying, Oh God.
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“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”
― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
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“Because time is a drop in the ocean, and you cannot measure off one drop against another to see which one is bigger, which one is smaller.”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul
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“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein
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Statistics from Scientific American
