Stargazing and you

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:10 am

A clichée that one often hears late at night, often before you start feeling up / being felt up by the person lying next to you, is how insignificant and small the stars, space, the universe makes you feel.
Personally though, my worldview doesn't really include that sentiment. I'd rather like to think that the concept of significance is in itself only a product of the human brain. So in the context of humanity in relation to everything else, everyone is just as insignificant as a galaxy and as significant as a piece of gravel, as the word doesn't really have any meaning in that area. When I look at the stars, I don't really feel any different.
However, that's just me. The question here is, how does looking at the stars make you feel? What is the emotional translation of how your worldview deals with facing the so called "insignificance" of humanity?

Sounds like something you would ask while smoking something a little stronger then tobacco, I know, but I'm just asking this out of curiosity (a little organic substance may be involved as well). As I'm never gonna experience how others feel about the world around them, I might as well ask. Things are forgotten quickly on the interwebs anyways Very Happy

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:25 am

Sucks to be you. Your poll is fail too

I see the wonder of the universe all the time, though i dont feel insignifcant as i am very much part of it...

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:35 am

Trubadidudei wrote:

However, that's just me. The question here is, how does looking at the stars make you feel?

I gotta say this is the only part of your post that I understood.

But to answer your question I dont feel anything. Am I supposed to? Im sure I am significant in somebodies life.

Those poll answer are silly BTW.

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:42 am

OP is clearly high

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:49 am

HBS wrote:

OP is clearly high

Agreed

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:18 pm

HBS wrote:

OP is clearly high

Or maybe in deep philosophical trance, probably due to being high but nonetheless.

But OP i understand what you're trying to say but my life in too involved, too real for me me to feel insignificant by looking at the stars. Its perception, you're imagining the stars to be big; its like looking at a city skyline, you know those building are f**kin huge but it doesn't make you less significant when you're up close to them.

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:58 pm

I love space and like to stargaze a lot. People who share an interest in this should look up and visit your local observatories. Wink

As far as how I feel when gazing up at the stars? I don't think insignificant is the right word. For me I feel a sense of perspective, looking up into space I can't help but think of time. The amount of time that it takes light to reach us from the stars we're seeing, the amount of time that I've been alive, the amount of time that humans have inhabited earth.

In it all it's easy to see why one would feel insignificant but the way I see it we are anything but insignificant. All things, as big as planets revolving around their respective stars or as small as peoples interactions with one another fit together like cogs in a clock, the difference we have with most other objects in space is that we have the ability to make choices.

The thing that I bring from this is that we aren't just pieces of matter floating through space. We have the ability to not only control ourselves but have some control over our own surroundings. Whatever problems we might have in our lives when stacked up next to the infinite time and space of the universe our problems should start to seem insignificant.

Oh, and I have no idea what the poll options are supposed to mean... Confused

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:51 pm

Fun fact: I have never, not even once, ingested any other drug then coffee and alchohol, not counting the ones taken for medical reasons of course.
I just get caught up with what I'm writing, something which sometimes leaves coherence back in the dust. It's also been a while since I last wrote an english text, something which makes it even harder to focus on coherence.

Now, to clear some stuff up.

The poll doesn't really relate to the topic in any meaningfull way. Basically, I realised that I had never made a poll in any forum before, and since this topic isn't really the realm of intense discussion and a clash of opinions, I decided to make a rather meaningless but light hearted poll just to see how it turned out. Randomly I thought about the sensory distinction between something with a slimy wet surface, and something with a regular surface but with a soft and gooey texture, and put that as something for people to choose between. I kinda regret it now though, seeing as people take it so seriously. There's hardly any reason to cry "fail", as I wasn't trying to accomplish anything in particular with it, and thus I can't really fail at anything with it either (and yes I am aware that "fail" is what you regularly say when you dislike something, I just wanted to point out that the whole "fail" meme is way out of controll and now means something completely different then what the actual word implies. However, the weird joke I tried to make in the first sentence was an epic fail, probabbly caused alot of confusion with that one, the mood I began writing with really didn't match the mood that I continued with ).

And secondly, significance was just the clichée (I'm not sure if that's how you write it in english), and the question itself doesn't really revolve around it's significance (harr harr). It was rather about how your world view relates to the position of makind relative to the universe, and how that makes you feel. My sentiment was merely an example.
However, all of that is kind of lost when I have to clarify the post so people understand what I mean. The point kind of disapears in the process, as is demonstrated by the first post, where someone tries to offend me because he / she doesn't understand the difference between emotion and opinion.
At least some got it Smile

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:32 pm

A few tips for future threads then:

Ironic humour doesnt really work in threads so dont bother.

Make your discussion CLEAR and EASY to understand. This is why your first post fails.

Dont try to be smarter than you are because it makes you look stupid. Another reason why your first post fails.

If you are gonna do a poll, make it relate to your subject. This is why your poll fails.

Lastly we wasnt trying to insult you. We genuinely thought you were high off your mind. Your subject matter is fine but think it through next time.

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:44 pm

yeah dude, i wasn't trying to offend you - i was rather amused to be honest and my posts were to be taken tongue-in-cheek ...

It was my opinion the poll was a failure when the thread title had such great potential. Also, what Pacino says. No hard feelings mate Wink

I actually take great pleasure from observing the stars, planets and other objects around the planet. I am always filled wit great wonder and warmth, but i usually feel something like the opposite of insignificant. I hope this elaborated answer addresses your post... i too had some difficulty reading it.. hence the aside that you were clearly high.... Smile

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:48 pm

Quote:

hence the aside that your were clearly high....

where do i get what ur on? Razz

JJ mate, when i can get out of the city the stars look awesome. in the city; not to great. damn light pollution

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:30 am

Soon as I read the OP, these words from Shakespeare came to mind. I think they capture, incomparably, what goes through my mind when of a quiet night, I have a chance to glance upon the skies.

I get the whole insignificance thing. But I would prefer the word small rather than insignificant. Of the few times one looks skywards, even fewer are the ones in which one actually contemplates them. And still fewer when the realization sinks in just how big the whole damn thing is, what with most of those tiny winking lights being bigger than the sun. When you get to that point, you realize that how easily this whole planet could be wiped out, in less than the blink of an eye. And it would make no difference to anything. So yeah, from that point of view we really don't matter much. Less even, perhaps, than ants matter here on Earth. They, atleast, keep order in the jungles.

I don't however carry such thoughts around with me. These contemplations last no more than a few minutes. If for no other reason, than that there is always someone, or something, to interrupt you. Or could be because the magnitude of the whole thing is so huge, that it is not humanly possible to ponder the matter or any length of time. This is all to the good however, I don't think I could function otherwise.

It is certainly an amazing thing to get your head around though.

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:57 am

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ur all seriously high . . . . . . . Twisted Evil

EXCEPT WHITE VIPER . . . . . . i like his stuff Razz

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 2:41 am

Iprefer Vaseliny

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 8:54 am

quidproquo68 wrote:

Iprefer Vaseliny

What?