Yank 'Em By Their Shirt Collars

"...with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."  Ephesians 4:2-6 [ESV]

Image: Startalk/Curved Light Productions

It took some time for the shock to dissipate and my jaw to close as I sat glued to the Tubes while Neil deGrasse Tyson passionately laid out his dream plan from across the interview table on "Uncensored" with Piers Morgan. Leading up to this particular interview, the clips and moments I'd experienced concerning the "Star Talk" host and former Princeton research associate had left a somewhat bitter film on the back of my tongue. And my abrasive perception of Dr. de Grasse Tyson didn't seem to stem from anything he'd said; he knows what he's talking about. I even found it amusing that the brilliant astrophysicist thought it was vital to ring up James Cameron and inform the "Titanic" movie director that he hadn't accurately depicted the starry night sky over the sinking ocean liner. [My kind of humor, actually]. But for whatever reason, Mr. de Grasse Tyson just rubbed me the wrong way. 

Until now, anyway.

The shock and surprise hit me about halfway through the interview because I found myself laughing, jumping up, and actually shouting, "AMEN"!

Wow. Am I a closet Neil de Grasse Tyson fan!?

Piers had posed the question he'd recently begun asking of his American guests: Who will you vote for in the upcoming election? I will never forget what Neil said [am I allowed to just call him Neil?] - He said, what I'd really like to do? Is yank every politician up by their shirt collars, take them up to the moon and point their faces at the Earth and say ... what is wrong with you? THAT is the thing that matters. THAT is the big picture. Because when you get people to "zoom out" and really look closely at who we are and where we are? We discover we have more IN common than we ever had OUT of it. [OK, I'm paraphrasing - I don't have a PhD in astrophysics.]

Sitting back down post "amen" outburst, I discovered I had actually started asking myself ... wait a minute, can we really do that? Can we ring up Elon Musk and see if he couldn't put together some sort of humanitarian space summit? [LOL]

Why?

Image:Youtube/Uncensored with Piers Morgan

Well, there wouldn't be a more straightforward way to put our politicians on the same page. Let's get 'em all up there on the moon, where they have to share the same resources to survive, get 'em to check out Apophous - the asteroid approaching our space and cutting such a short shave in 2027 that we will experience the thing with the naked eye as it slips between us and the moon. Or maybe, let's get 'em all to pay attention to the new information pouring in as it pertains to our upcoming planetary teeter - a cycle that changes the orientation of the Earth's magnetic poles, flipping them around every several thousand years. For the first time in recorded human history we have the technology and understanding to, well ... record some of this stuff. We are learning that the core at the center of the planet - you know, that thing that keeps us spinning in space and helps provide gravity? - it's slowing down. We've never seen it do that before. We didn't have the ability to study these things the last time the poles wobbled.

The point is - we are this orphan planet in the middle of a vast, violent, and amazingly terrifying space. We are, so far as we know, ...IT. There is no lifeline if this ship goes down. We can't just hop on the next planet when we've destroyed this one. We don't get a second try at this humanity thing. So ... why do we quibble over borders and budgets and belongings? Those things don't really seem to hold much weight when you put them on The Grand Scale.

We just gotta' "zoom out".

Image: "Blue Marble"/Apollo 17  1972

When we can stand next to one another and look out at the big picture, when we can stop screaming and hating and bickering because some human soul doesn't belong our particular brand of social, religious, or political cult? We see this lonely little blue marble in the middle of a space so big we can't even really wrap our brains around it. ...And. We get to the crux of the matter ... 

One.

One Father. One Lord. One Spirit.

ONE humanity.

One God who is over it all and through it all and in it all.

Gotta' say - I'm with Neil de Grasse Tyson on this one.