Note the satellite in the photo. This is the kind of satellite that NASA reports fell to Earth recently in an "uncontrolled re-entry." And, despite the fact the spacecraft weighed more than 12,500 pounds, no one seemed to be all that concerned about it.
Which means one of two things. Either one, I'm apparently in the minority in my belief that a 6.5-ton object hurtling "uncontrolled" toward the Earth is highly unsettling. Or two, if the guys who know the most about this sort of thing aren't all that worked up about it, maybe I shouldn't be either.
At the end of the day, as massive as this satellite was, it's nothing compared to the overall mass of the Earth. So the odds of it landing in a place it could cause damage and injury were pretty slim. And for the record, it appears to have broken up significantly on re-entry and fallen harmlessly into the ocean. The odds you were going to be hit by a piece of this thing? Apparently 1 in 3,200.
That gets me thinking about our everyday problems. It seems most of have - with a few exceptions - what I'd call "1 in 3,200 problems" compared to the scope of what's going on in the planet around us. Our trouble may seem to be a 6.5-ton juggernaut bounding uncontrollably in our direction, but when viewed in the context of the enormity of the world around us - others' lives, others' problems, concerns many have in the world that are literally life-or-death propositions - we often end up with a 1 in 3,200 situation.
I only wish it was easy to gain that sort of understanding. It's incredibly difficult, but we're much better off when we maintain a proper perspective of the entirety of our world when it appears the sky is falling - in whatever size chunks.
You feel me?
AF
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