A Dispatch From the Home Planet - July 13 2022

 

A Dispatch From the Home Planet

July 13 2022

The newest pictures

from outer space

go back to the beginning of time.

The scientists are excited,

the colourful photos

magnificent.

But to me, one part of space

looks like any other.

And who cares

about 13 billion years

and counting,

when I will only live, at best

a hundred.

So many problems

here on earth

all those great and curious minds

could be working on.

But then, didn't we all want to be astronauts

when we were younger?

And I understand the urge

to leave home once in awhile.

They may even find

what came before.

The nothing, before there was something,

flashing into existence

at the beginning of time

and so improbably leading to us.

Who just may be

the only intelligent life in the universe,

despite so many stars

and all their planets,

the countless galaxies

and clouds of gas

past the limits of light.

And who may just have become

too smart for our own good.

Admiring pretty pictures

as the world burns,

while wilfully blind

to the desecration of our only home

down here on earth.

I'm not a fan of space exploration. Because right now, there are more urgent things all that money and those brains could be expended on. Existential risks and imminent catastrophes. So why not leave space to future generations? After all, nothing in the universe is going to change while wait. And in the meantime, we need to insure that there even are any future generations at all! I understand the natural human curiosity to explore and to know. But our priorities now need to be here, down on earth.