Hypothetical: Someone has offended you at the distance of one meter (about 3 feet). You feel the offense; it’s almost tangible. You might even be angry. You obsess over it. The offense is an incessant thought. You personify the offense: The offending person becomes the obsession. The person looms large in your field of view. Ubiquitous. Try to do this or that, and, there, at least in your mind’s eye, is the offender, close by and the focus of your attention, a circle about one meter in diameter.
Mentally go ten meters away from the place where the offending incident occurred. Look back. In your imagination see the two of you from that distance.
Go 100 meters away. Look back. Now what? You are looking at the two of you at a distance that separates the right field fence and home plate or the distance between the start and finish of a ten-second sprint by a world-class runner.
Go 1,000 meters away. Still a problem of great concern? One kilometer. That’s more than a half mile. With the naked eye you can make out the shapes of two people very well, but they are rather small.
Go 10,000 meters away. That’s a little over six miles. Look back, but use a terrestrial telescope. Those two figures are very far away. What seems to be the problem? Even in the telescope, the two of them appear very small. Wonder what they are saying to each other. Wonder what each one thinks. Think either will remember the incident tomorrow?
Go 100,000 meters away. Can’t see the two dots? You’re more than 60 miles away. Get out the military reconnaissance camera lenses, you know, the ones they use on satellites to spy on enemies or something used for Google Earth. You do want to see your “enemy,” don’t you? The person does still loom large, right?
Go 1,000,000 meters away. Better break out the Hubble Space Telescope, turn it around, and focus on a one-meter circle where the two stand back on Earth.
Want to go farther? See the offending person from 10,000,000 meters. How about 100,000,000 meters, or more than 62 million miles?
I know what you’re thinking. “But the offense was real. I was really offended. I don’t like the offender. This matter is affecting my life here, now, and in the one-meter circle of my life.”
To which I say, “Yes, it certainly was an offense, and I can see why it bothered you. Yes, I would most likely be upset, too. No one likes to be offended. Still, what if we all took a little trip? What if we could see both our problems and ourselves from distances increasing by powers of ten? The question isn’t new, but maybe it’s worth asking.”
Mentally go ten meters away from the place where the offending incident occurred. Look back. In your imagination see the two of you from that distance.
Go 100 meters away. Look back. Now what? You are looking at the two of you at a distance that separates the right field fence and home plate or the distance between the start and finish of a ten-second sprint by a world-class runner.
Go 1,000 meters away. Still a problem of great concern? One kilometer. That’s more than a half mile. With the naked eye you can make out the shapes of two people very well, but they are rather small.
Go 10,000 meters away. That’s a little over six miles. Look back, but use a terrestrial telescope. Those two figures are very far away. What seems to be the problem? Even in the telescope, the two of them appear very small. Wonder what they are saying to each other. Wonder what each one thinks. Think either will remember the incident tomorrow?
Go 100,000 meters away. Can’t see the two dots? You’re more than 60 miles away. Get out the military reconnaissance camera lenses, you know, the ones they use on satellites to spy on enemies or something used for Google Earth. You do want to see your “enemy,” don’t you? The person does still loom large, right?
Go 1,000,000 meters away. Better break out the Hubble Space Telescope, turn it around, and focus on a one-meter circle where the two stand back on Earth.
Want to go farther? See the offending person from 10,000,000 meters. How about 100,000,000 meters, or more than 62 million miles?
I know what you’re thinking. “But the offense was real. I was really offended. I don’t like the offender. This matter is affecting my life here, now, and in the one-meter circle of my life.”
To which I say, “Yes, it certainly was an offense, and I can see why it bothered you. Yes, I would most likely be upset, too. No one likes to be offended. Still, what if we all took a little trip? What if we could see both our problems and ourselves from distances increasing by powers of ten? The question isn’t new, but maybe it’s worth asking.”
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