Quite much to fret in August 2021, no call to rehash. Let’s take a break and celebrate science/math/technology at one zenith, just to bolster cosmic spirits.
The attached article is a gorgeous illustration of the phenomenal discoveries by astronomers over the past ~100 years re: our galaxy and the expanding universe. Lessons galore for us healthcare workers,…..the sovranty power of curiosity, re-imagination of perplexities, persistence, team work, and most of all humility/awe/perspective. Close your eyes and visualize: there are many billions of galaxies, each with many billions of stars, thus a bazillion exoplanets. We are not insignificant,…..to the contrary, we are likely not alone.
We cannot escape him you know. He’s even quoted in the attached article, because he suspected distant galaxies (nebulae) well before most others. Whether you have read him, or understand him, or agree with him, or not,……..we have to admit his light-year reach into disparate disciplines, and his paradigm-busting profundity second to no human I have read (just my opinion). On his tombstone in Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) where he spent his entire modest 80 year life:
Two things fill the mind with ever new admiration and awe the more often we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
But, not included is his very next thought from the Critique of Practical Reason:
I do not seek either of them as veiled obscurities or extravagance beyond my vision; I see them before me and connect them with the consciousness of my existence.
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804
Joe Kaempf, MD
District VIII Oregon Representative
Portland, OR
Volume 13, Number 28