—Francis Alÿs
Never apologize for how you feel. No one can control how they feel. The sun doesn’t apologize for being the sun. The rain doesn’t say sorry for falling. Feelings just are.
—Iain S. Thomas
Did you swipe right on Tinder 1,000 times and no one swiped back? Doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter because the immense vastness of the universe can be a kind of gift reminding us all to chill out. The whole stage of our lives, with all its immense joy and sorrow, is really part of much larger and much grander play. Knowing the true scale of the universe doesn’t have to freak us out. Instead it can remind us to do the best we can, to be careful, compassionate, give it all our effort and, then, step back.
—from Does the Size of Space Freak You Out?
Did you swipe right on Tinder 1,000 times and no one swiped back? Doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter because the immense vastness of the universe can be a kind of gift reminding us all to chill out. The whole stage of our lives, with all its immense joy and sorrow, is really part of much larger and much grander play. Knowing the true scale of the universe doesn’t have to freak us out. Instead it can remind us to do the best we can, to be careful, compassionate, give it all our effort and, then, step back.
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr. | Letter from Birmingham Jail