Plague Journal, House Hunting
The most distant object that most folks can see with the unaided eye is also the closest major galaxy to our own Milky Way. Although the Andromeda Galaxy lies a mind-bending 2.5 million light-years from Earth, its trillion stars are enough to emit a strong glow across the vast reaches of space. Despite the wide gap, the Milky Way and Andromeda are on a collision course and predicted to begin merging in roughly 4.5 billion years. (You’ve been warned.)
A trillion stars, and that’s just the next neighborhood over… I captured the photo and the description from the Microsoft browser promotion that comes up when using Firefox online. Actually I don’t mind the advertising in this case, as I often learn something new.
If I were house hunting why not have a look around in the neighborhood next door? Certainly with a trillion solar systems to chose from, a suitable life-invested, cozy planet is there to be found. Assuming the planet is inhabited with bipedal, language-enabled mammals, would not they have their own problems similar to those we are so familiar with? I have in mind the chronic struggle with good and evil in it’s many variants: getting along with others who have different views and customs, living within the means of the ecosystem of the planet, and sharing with those unlucky, placed at disadvantage by circumstance…
On second thought, I’ll be satisfied to stay here. The neighborhood where I belong, is where I can work with others, to heal old wounds, to approach “herd immunity” in the moral struggle, the contest between good and evil. This is the home that I know, where I have roots — might as well get on with the work to be done right here, right now.
Besides, moving is nothing but very hard work…
Did you know that you can see Andromeda, the neighborhood next door with the naked eye? Here’s how.
