Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sigh and Giggle

Sigh and Giggle

When was the last time you wallowed in
contentment,

maybe lay in bed for two days just making
your lover sigh and giggle, and she

and you talked silliness for hours and
joked at the sweet insignificance of most
all stuff?

Cuddle up with the stars more.


You will be able to do that
if you can start treating every human being
as sacred.


            The imagery of this poem makes me feel content, it also makes me yearn to spend a day cuddled up in bed with someone special. As I was contemplating what to post with it, I came across a relevant picture on Pinterest with a Carl Sagan quote on it (see below). This then reminded me of a beautiful love story I once read on NPR about him. You can read the full story here, but I've compiled excerpts that I believe summarize what an astounding story it is!

            "In 1977 NASA launched two spacecraft as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission. On board each craft was a golden record that included, among other things, the sound of a kiss, a mother's first words to her newborn child, music from all over the world, and greetings in 59 different languages. The records on board were meant to survive for a billion years, in the hope that some day, against enormous odds, they might cross paths with an alien civilization.

     What do you include if you have one shot at describing humanity to an unknown life form? That was the charge of Carl Sagan and creative director of the project, Ann Druyan. It was during the Voyager project that Sagan and Druyan fell in love, which incidentally gave Druyan an idea for the record.

     They could measure the electrical impulses of a human brain and nervous system, turn it into sound, and put it on the record. Then maybe, 1,000 million years from now, some alien civilization might be able to turn that data back into thoughts.

      So, just a few days after she and Sagan declared their love for each other, Druyan went to Bellevue Hospital in New York City and meditated while the sounds of her brain and body were recorded. According to Druyan, part of what she was thinking during that meditation was about "the wonder of love, of being in love."

     And the gold records? They're still out there with their offer, to whomever might stumble across them, of a human body newly in love."


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