The Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again 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.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

http://www.thepresentparticiple.blogspot.com

A Thousand Kisses Deep - Redux

You came to me this morning 

and you handled me like meat

You would have to be a man to know how good that feels, 

how sweet

My mirrored twin, my next of kin, 

I'd know you in my sleep

And who but you would take me in 

a thousand kisses deep

I loved you when you opened 

like a Lilly to the heat

You see I'm just another snowman standing in the rain and sleet

Who loved you with his frozen love 

his secondhand physique

With all he is and all he was 

a thousand kisses deep

I know you had to lie to me, 

I know you had to cheat

To pose all hot and high behind the veils of pure deceit

Our perfect poor aristocrat 

so elegant and cheap

I'm old but I'm still into that 

a thousand kisses deep

I'm good at love, I'm good at hate 

it's in between I freeze

I've been working out but it's too late, 

it's been too late for years

But you look good, you really do, 

they love you on the street

If I could move I'd kneel for you 

a thousand kisses deep

The Autumn moved across your lips, 

I got something in my eye

A light that doesn't need to live and doesn't need to die

A riddle in the book of love 

obscure and obsolete

'til witnessed here in time and blood 

a thousand kisses deep

And I'm still working with the wine 

still dancing cheek to cheek

The band is playing Old Lang Syne but the heart will not retreat

I jammed with Dizz, I sang with Ray, 

I never had their sweep

But once or twice they let me play 

a thousand kisses deep

I loved you when you opened 

like a Lilly to the heat

You see I'm just another snowman, 

standing in the rain and sleet

Who loved you with his frozen love 

his secondhand physique

With all he is and all he was 

a thousand kisses deep

But you don't need to hear me now 

and every word I speak

Counts against me anyhow, 

a thousand kisses deep

A Thousand Kisses Deep - Leonard Cohen

1. You came to me this morning

And you handled me like meat.

You´d have to live alone to know

How good that feels, how sweet.

My mirror twin, my next of kin,

I´d know you in my sleep.

And who but you would take me in

A thousand kisses deep?

2. I loved you when you opened

Like a lily to the heat.

I´m just another snowman

Standing in the rain and sleet,

Who loved you with his frozen love

His second-hand physique -

With all he is, and all he was

A thousand kisses deep.

3. All soaked in sex, and pressed against

The limits of the sea:

I saw there were no oceans left

For scavengers like me.

We made it to the forward deck

I blessed our remnant fleet -

And then consented to be wrecked

A thousand kisses deep.

4. I know you had to lie to me,

I know you had to cheat.

But the Means no longer guarantee

The Virtue in Deceit.

That truth is bent, that beauty spent,

That style is obsolete -

Ever since the Holy Spirit went

A thousand kisses deep.

5. (So what about this Inner Light

That´s boundless and unique?

I´m slouching through another night

A thousand kisses deep.)

6. I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,

I´m back on Boogie Street.

I tried to quit the business -

Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.

But sometimes when the night is slow,

The wretched and the meek,

We gather up our hearts and go

A thousand kisses deep.

7. (And fragrant is the thought of you,

The file on you complete -

Except what we forgot to do

A thousand kisses deep.)

8. The ponies run, the girls are young,

The odds are there to beat.

You win a while, and then it´s done -

Your little winning streak.

And summoned now to deal

With your invincible defeat,

You live your life as if it´s real

A thousand kisses deep.

9. (I jammed with Diz and Dante -

I did not have their sweep -

But once or twice, they let me play

A thousand kisses deep.)

10. And I´m still working with the wine,

Still dancing cheek to cheek.

The band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" -

The heart will not retreat.

And maybe I had miles to drive,

And promises to keep -

You ditch it all to stay alive

A thousand kisses deep.

11. And now you are the Angel Death

And now the Paraclete;

And now you are the Savior's Breath

And now the Belsen heap.

No turning from the threat of love,

No transcendental leap -

As witnessed here in time and blood

A thousand kisses deep.

September 21, 1998