The small picture, the big picture, and quarks...

I love a bit of perspective. 

First thing in the morning…last thing at night…any time in between. 

For instance…

We call ourselves Human. Enlightened. Educated. Caring. Creative. Artistic. Helpful. Honest. Fair. Trustworthy. Mature. Loyal. Independent. Passionate. Co-operative. Imaginative. Responsible. Ethical. Hard working. Proud. Humble. Emotional. Capable. Appreciative. Strong. Gentle. Understanding. Generous. Empathic. Intuitive. Courageous. Adventurous. Bold.

We forge bonds. Build relationships. Families. Communities. Countries. A world. A future. And we do so because we believe that we can make things better for those we know. Those we love. Often those we’ve never met or even heard of. 

And to do that, we work our bollocks off from morning to night.  Just so we can say “we did our best”… “we tried our hardest”…“we weren’t the ones who fucked things up”… “we weren’t the ones who let others fuck things up.”

Just so we can say “we spoke up”… “we stood our ground”… “we did the right thing.”

That’s what we like to believe. That’s what we like to tell ourselves. 

At least some of us.

The rest of us don’t give a damn. Or we don’t know how to give a damn. Or we were never even given the chance to give a damn in the first place. 

We just leave it up to others to make the plans. Make the rules. Make the laws. Make the opportunities. Make the news. Sit on our arses or go to our churches and pray to our God to make the world a better place. Because, for some of us, he sure as Hell can’t make it a worse one. 

That’s our job. 

Despite our underlying desire to do the right thing, we constantly defend our right to do the wrong thing. We lie. We cheat. We steal. We make life and take life. We punish the innocent and protect the guilty. We screw the planet, and each other, with an enthusiasm that verges on the passionate. We destroy the good and promote the bad. We tear down what we should be building up, and vice versa. We zip the lip, allow the lunatics to run the asylum and strangle common sense at birth. And we sit back and do nothing while our worst qualities kick the shit out of our best ones. 

That’s the helicopter view. 

That’s Dewey and Louie in the Huey view. 

That’s the big picture. 

Here’s the small one. 

In the known universe, there’s nothing smaller than a quark.

Not a damned thing. 

It’s like a cross between a duck and a dog. Only it doesn’t quack, it doesn’t bark, and it’s almost non-existent. 

Now here’s the much, MUCH bigger picture. 

There are six quarks in every atom. 

There are 7 billion billion billion atoms in your body. 

And there are 7.442 billion bodies on planet Earth. 

That’s a whole lot of quarks…and atoms…and bodies. Until you find out that…apart from our own little marble in the sky…there are an estimated 40 billion earth-sized planets in the Milky Way. 

Our own little galaxy being one of the more insignificant ones.

Scientists tell us (although how the Hell they know is beyond me) that there are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. 

And somewhere, on one or more of those planets…in those galaxies…in this universe…there must surely be other sentient beings. Some might be like us. Others might be nothing like us at all. A bit like family resemblances. 

And if we’re to believe the latest scientific thinking, we all have one thing in common. 

One tiny thing that links every one of us with every other one of us. 

We all have quarks. 

Which means the smallest thing in the universe, is also the biggest…

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The above is an extract from my book Ad Infinitum (still in the pregnancy stage). Like its sisters Ad Lib, and Ad Hoc, it's about creativity, advertising, life, and lots of stuff in between. 

You'll find Ad Lib and Ad Hoc on Amazon, along with my other books, Love & Coffee and Heaven Help Us. In print and ebook. Waiting for you. Just look here: 

Ad Lib: https://amzn.to/2kd4LKf.

Ad Hoc: https://amzn.to/2Nx8GL8

Love & Coffee: https://amzn.to/28IWaHq

Heaven Help Us: https://amzn.to/2nkQ1Jk

Grab a coffee, grab a chair, and grab a sneaky peek. 

Then grab a copy...