Pale Blue Dot

"... It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

It's Carl Sagan's birthday and that's an excerpt from his book Pale Blue Dot. Sagan was an optimist and a skeptic. He had the ability to elucidate our place in the cosmos in a unique and inspiring way, forcing us to recognize the 'delusion that we have some privileged place in the universe.'

As we reflect on recent world developments, no matter how shocking and unsavory we find them to be, we should remember that we're all mutual inhabitants of that speck in the cosmic dark.