"Do you know like we were saying, about the earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it... the turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go..."

I've always really liked that quote. This picture reminded me of it.
I went out into a field tonight, because it was an extremely clear night. I had a small epiphanic moment. Have you ever gone out there, and stared up at the night sky? At first, I felt insignificant, small. I felt that feeling where I know that Creation is big (I believe in a scientific approach to things, with some small religious portions, usually, so bear with me here). There is, for me, my home. It's not that big, but it's more than enough for me. After that, there's my neighborhood. There are hundreds of people living here, living their own long life. They all have unique views on everything, and a lifetime of tales to tell. Beyond my neighborhood, there's the township I'm living in. There are a couple thousand people, and 2 schools. Beyond that, my town of 40,000 people. This town is, relative to my home, massive. I have a lifetime of photos to take in here and only so little time in which to take them. Compare it to the county I live in, or the state, or the region, it's miniscule and insignificant (to the region, not the county). 40,000 people out of 65.3 million. That's only 3 people out of every 5000. Beyond that, there's the country, which is at 311.5 million, which is massively massively massive, if you think about it. Let's take a look at the earth: 6,973,738,433 people, as of 2011. Now, let me ask you a question: how much of your life is one second? Hardly anything. If you live to be 85, that's 1/2.7 billionth of your life. Does much happen that will influence you in that one second? No, probably not. Did you know, basically, that if you were to instantaneously live one second of everyone's life on earth, that it would take you 221 years to get through it all? Now, look at us in comparison to the galaxy: we're tiny. Obscenely tiny. The sun, which can contain 1.3 million earths to fill, is just one of the many little dots that light our night sky. Speaking of light, let me explain something (again, bear with me. I was in a relativistic physics course, and since then, I have found the concept of light baffling), how far is it from Seattle to New York? 2414 miles, as the crow flies. If you walked at, oh, let's say 3 mph, it would take you about 50 days if you stopped only for 8 hours of sleep daily. Did you know that it takes light less than 1/5th of a second to go in a straight line from New York to Seattle (.13 seconds, if I remember correctly)? Now multiply that speed across a year. It's massive. Now multiply that by a couple million. You now have the concept of the our galaxy Now you're talking insignificant. But wait! What if you take that across all the galaxies in the universe? And from there, all the universes in the multiverse? And from there, (I don't know, I'm just guessing now), all the multiverses in Creation? I felt that tonight. Just for a moment, that momentous insignificance.
And then, there came said epiphanic moment: I am omnipotent. Those stars were shining for me. Just for me and for me alone. They shone across millions of light years, to reach me in that field, to take this photo. I feel privileged to have caught this, and yet, incredible. These moments are some of the reasons that I really love photography.
Sorry about the philosophical-statistical blast at you guys there. I am currently in a horribly remedial technical math class (Why is it remedial? See above. Relativistic physics was fun for me and only slightly challenging at the time.), and I need to do some actual stuff to keep myself busy. I want to get out of mx+b and into stuff that makes you think. GAH! Why can't I be a little bit smarter and pull off being an astrophysicist?!?!?!

EDIT: In case you were wondering (it took me a little while to figure it out), that line in the bottom right of the picture is an airplane. The picture was taken over 30 seconds, and there were a lot of planes overhead for some reason. Stupid planes, photobombing my pictures.