William Shakespeare: All The World's A Stage

All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover.
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistresess' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of stange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound, Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
From As You Like It

I thought of doing this bit of Shakespeare when I remembered the Voyager 1 photo. The image is a picture of earth, bathed in sun rays, taken from the spacecraft from a distance of about 6.1 billion km or 3.8 billion miles. It occurred to me when I saw this photo, taken in 1990, that we humans are so very small. Just think of it -every love story-every war-every life and death-every hatred-every friendship-every jealousy-every rise and fall of nations and empires and cultures-and so on to infinity has taken place on this incredibly tiny pale blue dot we call earth. When I think of the immensity we are bathed in I just have to wonder-How much do we really know? Where are we going? Are we heading towards some sort of Omega in the evolution of humanity -or a fusillade of ICBMs? So many questions and so little time to ask them all in. For all nerds out there (I include myself) Happy Square Root Day-I do so hope we are all still around for the next one on 4-4-16! For all non-nerds , I hope you have a beautiful day too!