No matter which direction you look you can see infinity.

Some might say ‘Its always been and always will be the same universe, only our understanding of it will change’

They might be right on some level, but they couldn’t be more wrong on every level that matters.

The universe started as a primordial soup of energy, and over the course of 13.77 billion years assembled itself into stars and galaxies- generation after generation of stars burned with no eyes to see them, forging new elements that would allow ever greater complexity and then releasing their ashes to be recycled.

4 billion years ago on an insignificant spec, orbiting an insignificant star in a galaxy that was just one of 100′s of billions of galaxies some of those ashes found conditions suitable to organize themselves into life, and over billions of years that life evolved the senses to observe the universe. A long evolution full of dead ends, stumbles and U-turns- a drunkard’s walk towards sentience.

And so we are here now- stardust that has become capable of starting to understand all this- capable of assembling other bits of refined stardust with nearly atomic precision to create eyes that can peer back to the beginning in hopes of understanding it all. Seeing light emitted by long dead stars when the only matter in the universe was Hydrogen, Helium and maybe traces of Lithium- no life existed to watch those stars burn and die- the photons have traveled for billions of years across the universe and will only now be seen. Messages in bottles set adrift by the early universe being found and opened now that the universe has developed the tools to open and understand them.

13.77 billion years the universe has waited and organized itself for this moment, and now it is here. We will observe what has never been seen before, and we will try to understand what it all means… stardust gazing at stardust- and in a very real sense the universe will start understanding itself.

Across the near infinities of time and space does what is happening on this insignificant speck of a planet orbiting an insignificant star really matter? You could say ‘NO’, and be right on some level.

But on every level that counts, THIS is ALL that matters.
THIS may change nothing, but it absolutely DOES change EVERYTHING.
Our universe is about to change, enjoy the ride.

Just a few hours ago I was ashamed to be an American. Now I am intensely proud to be one.