I’ve never really been that interested in space. However, the recent Artemis II trip around the moon, amid the chaos on Earth, provided welcome relief.
Somewhere in the reporting, I picked up the words of former astronaut Ron Garan, who spent six months on the International Space Station in 2011. Garan described seeing Earth from space, and that the atmosphere protecting all life appeared as a paper-thin blue halo, barely visible, yet responsible for everything that breathes, grows, and survives.
From space, there are no borders visible, no manmade divisions. The human inhabitants occupy a single planet, completely reliant on Earth's resources.
Garan says that when he was in space for the first time, he was outside the masterpiece's frame, looking in. “That changes everything.” That view triggered what he calls the “overview effect”, a profound cognitive shift reported by many who see Earth from space.
This viewpoint caused Garan to question humanity’s priorities. On Earth, economic growth is often treated as the goal. From space, that hierarchy collapses. He argues that the correct order should be planet first, society second, and economy last, because without a healthy planet, neither society nor economy can exist.
I can imagine that, for an astronaut returning from space, relating to the trivial concerns of humans on Earth must be incredibly difficult. I was also struck by this perspective in a different context, the context of one human life.
I imagine my decisions would feel insignificant. Yet, as one of the human inhabitants whose cumulative decisions could impact the future of the planet, I matter.
What if I applied this same view to my own life? If I looked at my life from space, my financial success would become almost insignificant. What would truly matter? Would relationships, health, and connection come into sharper focus than wealth? Without health, for example, wealth becomes almost meaningless.
An overview of any system or timespan is valuable. At first, it puts our decisions in perspective to the much larger story at play, and it can make overwhelming decisions seem smaller, perhaps more manageable.
Yet it also highlights the importance of our small cumulative everyday decisions. Our choices can be both insignificant in the context of history and the Earth's overpowering size, and vital to the survival of our ecosystem. In some ways, we don’t matter at all, but in other ways, our choices are critical.
This perspective highlights the importance of the whole story and all the cumulative decisions, some small, some big, that together tell the narrative of our lives, like frames of Earth from space over time.
With this perspective, I wonder what story my life will tell. Perhaps the space metaphor is a reminder to regularly zoom out to the big picture, look up from the small details, and question the overarching story of our lives.
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Kind regards,
Sunél
