Life around Us

Why is there so much space?

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship enterprise. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life form and new civilisation. To boldly go where no man has gone before…

Ok. Star Trek was part of my daily TV diet during my university days. And because of that, I scored fairly high on some nerd test online. Although I now will also have to bring in another one under-rated film, Contact. It explores the relationship of human beings when faced with alien technology. The one line I remember from the film is:

(in the context of whether there are aliens out there)… If it is just us, seems like an awful waste of space…

We see space everywhere. From the “thing” between stars and galaxies, to the space between you and your fellow commuter on the train. No matter how little space we feel we have, the lift can always seem to fill “one more person”, until the “overweight” alarm sounds.

I have used the word “space” in its broadest sense, representing all spatial relationships. A recent martial art movie, Fearless, highlighted an interesting message about plants.

Plants are living things. They need space to grow. Without sufficient space, they can’t grow properly.

Maybe that’s why there is so much space. The water bottle needs space to store water. The house has living space. Art is made up of spaces so that the subject is instantly recognisable. Without space, there can be no physical matter.

I think this applies to time as well. We need to allow some space in our time, not to fill up all the space time has to offer. The space is there to make the time spent actually “doing” things more meaningful. And to take cue from the universe, we have to provide some “space out” time. So, for all the action junkies out there, or even if you feel guilty spending “space out” time, just remember, you are just learning from the universe. Great excuse to day dream isn’t it?

© 2008 shang lee . com.