To Alec, on his Baptism
Saturday 12 March 2022My darling Godson Alec,
I have not yet had the privilege of holding you in my arms or seeing your smiling face in person, but I hold you in my heart every day as I see you grow from across this pale blue dot that we all call home.
You won’t recognise that reference yet, the “pale blue dot”, so let me explain. Once, an incredible man called Carl Sagan suggested that a departing spacecraft turn around for one last look at its home planet. The photo that it took shows a vast dark universe and one tiny pale blue dot, caught in a beam of light. That dot is the planet Earth. When Carl Sagan saw that photo, he wrote the following:
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
You have the privilege of joining our pale blue dot at a time of great change. If I were to travel from my home to yours, I would pass great floods, unholy wars and pandemics. I would also witness the human race coming together for each other in ways not seen in either of our lifetimes to fix what has been broken.
I write these things to you today not to scare you about what is happening in the world, but to reassure you. Because when I look at Carl Sagan’s words, it reminds me of the infinite possibilities of the life you have ahead of you in a world that is ready for change.
It is my prayer for you, as your Godmother, that you take the love of God given to you today as you are reborn into our church and hold it close as you begin to discover what this incredible life has in store for you. It is my hope that you take God's love with you on your journey through every day. It is my dream that your life means our pale blue dot will shine a little brighter in the darkness of the universe.
Your loving Godmother
Nat
Great piece! Absolutely love love love the words from Carl Sagan. I have always found them very comforting.
ReplyDeleteSame! I once listened to an amazing Radiolab podcast about him and I've loved his words ever since. I tried to write so many things to Alec, but however I started, I always came back to the pale blue dot
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