We are all, at this very moment, on a rock that is hurtling through space at 2.7 million miles per hour (when you factor in the movement of the solar system and the motion of the galaxy itself).

This rock appears to be very solid and permanent beneath our feet, but in fact it becomes molten and tumultuous at an average depth of only 25 miles. This mostly-molten ball of rock is shooting through a vast, potentially-infinite universe that is approximately 14 billion years old.

It’s a universe that contains hundreds of billions of galaxies, each one containing hundreds of billions of stars. The part of the universe that we are able to see contains 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains 200-400 billion stars. Our own star system (including this speeding rock we call planet Earth) is around 4.5 billion years old.

Our planet has gone through several mass extinction events, where the majority of its life forms vanished from the universe forever. Around 650 million years ago, our planet was completely entombed in ice, becoming a virtual snowball for 10 million years. For 160 million years, dinosaurs ruled the planet. By comparison, human species have existed for around 2.5 million years, and we homo sapiens for around only 200,000 years. The recorded history of our species extends back to around 6,000 years ago.

If you were to compare the time period that we modern humans have existed relative to the age of this rock we’re traveling on, by imagining it as a single year, we have been around for less than one day.

So, here we all are, racing through space together at millions of miles an hour, perched on the precariously-thin shell of this molten rock, among billions and billions of stars contained within billions and billions of galaxies. Here we are, ruled not by a sense of perspective tempered by the foregoing, or by rational thought, but rather by our passions, emotions, biases.

And what do we clever monkeys consider important, what matters to us?

We get angry because the fries we were served are cold.

We judge other people unyieldingly, using our subjective yardstick of what constitutes correct and moral behavior and thought.

We become offended by that person who is so audacious as to disagree with our political opinions (“don’t they know that they’re WRONG?”).

We need people to see us as powerful and knowledgeable, even if it’s just wielding our perceived authority within our local PTA.

We remain pissed off at that driver who cut us off hours earlier.

We distrust people whose religious beliefs and practices, or sexual preferences, are different from ours, because….well, because they’re not the SAME as ours.

We “unfriend” people on Facebook because they wounded our ego by not acknowledging how important and special we are.

We fume at being placed on hold for so long, or because of poor service by that waiter.

We carry resentment toward that boss who fired us years ago, obsessed with demonstrating to them what a mistake they made.

We spend the bulk of our conversations talking about other people and what we perceive to be their personality defects.

That is how we squander this astonishing, singular existence we share, 4.5 billion years after this universe popped into being. That is how we trivially occupy the all-too-brief 80 years or so that we get to ride on this roller coaster, before the ride comes to an end and we have to get off.

This morning, I woke to find that I was still going ’round on the ride, and that I didn’t have to get off just yet. Will I have a sense of perspective about my place in the universe…about what truly matters?

Copyright © 2012 Carmine DeMarco