Hello, Pluto - and Charon!
Friday, July 17, 2015
THE LESSONS
OF PLUTO
By
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming
7/17/2015
In mid July, we Earthlings got to witness something that all of the ancients were not able to witness - a planet called Pluto. Oh, I know a lot of current astronomer types have known about Pluto since the early 20th Century, but before that, not even the likes of Copernicus and Galileo knew anything about it.
I still do not know much about it, but I do know a little. I know it is there - or out there. Due to the recent pictures relayed back to planet Earth by our spacecraft, New Horizons, this week, I have even seen pictures of it. To say the least, this one is impressed; but I am not so much impressed by a picture of Pluto, but by a notion of Pluto.
So, what does Pluto tell me? It tells me that in all likelihood, our entire Universe is the same in general. Pictures can do that - if we let them. They can tell us so much - if we will listen. When I see pictures of Pluto sent back by our spaceship, New Horizons, I am particularly impressed that such a picture - or pictures - confirms what I have long believed - that our wonderful Universe is about the same from beginning to end; that is, in general, that is so.
Of course, planet Pluto differs in details from planet Earth and planet Saturn and planet Jupiter and planet Neptune, but in that it is a round sphere circling the Sun, there is no difference among the planets. What does that tell me? It tells me that it should not make a bit of difference to me as a soul that I am in a body on Earth - or a body on Pluto or Saturn or Jupiter or Neptune - given, of course, that I can access a body on Pluto or Saturn or Jupiter or Neptune like I can on Earth.
Now, let me explode that wonderful bit of news. What does that tell me? It tells me that it is probably - and I emphasize, probably - no different anywhere in any planetary system in all of Existence. It tells me that it is unlikely that there is anything more noble or more beautiful or more lovely than Pluto in all of Existence - not just all of my own solar universe.
If it is "probably" the same, then, in all of Existence, what does that tell me? If I am wise, it tells me that I should love my own planet, Earth, as much as I might love Pluto or Saturn or Jupiter or Neptune - or whatever. It tells me that maybe I should stop expecting some great Heaven in some great Unknown spec of Everywhere - and start practicing Heaven on Earth. At least, that is what it tells me.
Hey, I think I am way ahead of Moses and all ancient moralists - simply because I know a whole lot more than they did. Moses "probably" did not even know he was on a planet, let alone know that such planet actually travels around the Sun. In all likelihood, Moses believed he was standing on some ground that was a flat underground to so much that hovered above it - as if that which hovers above it only exists to serve those who walk upon that underground.
Let's face it. Moses was probably as ignorant as I was before I opened a text book about the Universe and studied it. Moses had no textbooks. All he had was his own mind - and what he thought he could see - or was seeing. The Sun was not likely a center piece of a Universe for Moses. It was probably like some mysterious light that awoke in the morning and went to sleep at night - just as the Moon was likely a lesser light that sometime appeared in the night - though, it, too, rose and set upon that which was not a planet, but an underground only.
The truth, however, is that our Earth is not some underground with only dirt underneath it, but a wonderful planet - like Pluto - that is whipping around the Sun. For me, Pluto is like a brother and Pluto's little moon, that is called Charon, is like a little sister. We all exist as wonderful creations of some sort; and that should make us all "brothers" and "sisters" of - or in - Reality.
Or so, I Believe!