Simple Pleasures

Just the other day, after writing about how we, as humans, fit into scope of the natural world, I remembered an inspiring short film that I saw several years ago.  I was so impressed with the simplicity of the presentation and the profound way it communicated our position in, and our perspective view of not only the natural world, but also the universe.  The film’s title is Cosmic Zoom and it was produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 1968.  The idea for the film came from the 1957 essay Cosmic View by Kees Boeke.  The film attempts to illustrate how we might view, if we were able, the smallest particles of matter as well as the largest planets and most distant galaxies.  It gives one a real sense of relative size and distance.  I invite you to view the film and consider your own place in the universe.