march 17,2007

I was tired of looking at the pic I had on my desktop the other day and decided to change it. While going through all the pics that I had found on the web for just such occasions.
I found this one by Richard Big.



it reminded me of something I had read in the book "Out of the Silent Planet" after the main character had been kidnapped and brought in to space for the first time.

"There was endless night on one side of the ship and endless day on the other: each was marvellous and he moved from one to the other at his will, delighted. In the nights, which he could create by the turning the handle of a door, he lay for hours in contemplation of the skylight. The Earth's disk was no where to be seen; the stars, thick as daisies on an uncut lawn, reigned perpetually with no cloud, no moon, no sunrise to dispute there sway. There were planets of unbelievable majesty, and constellations undreamed of: there were celestial sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pin-pricks of gold; far out on the left of the picture hung a comet, tiny and remote: and between all and behind all, a far more emphatic and palpable than it showed on Earth, the undimensioned, enigmatic blackness. "

In these times when there seems to be plenty of negativity it is nice to look up at the night sky, pics such as the one above, and many other grand and majestic things and realize hope.



the photo is by Richard Big.
the quote is from chapter 5 "out of the silent planet" by C.S. Lewis