Voyager 1 was launched in September 1977; so long ago that dinosaurs still roamed the earth, mammals had only just evolved, and I was completing Year 11 (I even had hair then…unbelievable, I know!). Today this plucky little space probe has travelled 23.5 billion kilometres from home, is still functional after 45 years and is no longer in the solar system. The sounds of particles from our gentle sun, the solar winds, have long since fallen silent as Voyager no longer remains within the confines of home base. It has entered interstellar space.
To give you an idea how far away this is, it takes light eight minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. If light were to travel from Voyager 1 to us it would take about a day, give or take a few hours; that’s massive.
Interestingly, in 1990 Voyager was rocketing past Saturn. It had completed its primary mission, checking out the gaseous giant, Jupiter and the ringed wonder, Saturn. Job done; it would then fly off into the great beyond. Seemingly on a whim, renown astronomer, author and science communicator, Carl Sagan requested that NASA turn Voyager around and take a photo of Earth. Many opposed the manoeuvre because it would be extremely expensive and the attempt might damage sensitive instruments by pointing them toward the Sun. However, thanks to his tenacity, and a loyal band of supporters, the photo was taken and is now preserved for posterity.
To look at it, this long-distance snapshot seems not so impressive until you realise one thing; the tiny blue speck caught in the centre of scattered light beams is in fact our planet, our home. The phrase “the pale blue dot” was coined by Sagan to describe the image that is now forever known by this name.
In his ground-breaking TV show, Cosmos, Sagan describes this pale blue dot in words, unfathomably eloquent and in his distinctive style. The words would be wonderful to reproduce here but sadly the vagaries of copyright elude me so I include a link to YouTube so you may hear Sagan’s dulcet tones yourselves.
The Pale Blue Dot - Cosmos
With respect to quotes, however, I include the last paragraph of Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot Speech.
The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
Sometimes it helps to perceive things with a long view, taking a step back and gauging life from a different vantage point, like seeing our Earth as just a tiny blue dot. Realistically, St Edmund’s is a speck amongst a large population of schools. What make us special, well, it’s our home, metaphorically speaking.
In the ebb and flow of modern life our young men can become so focussed on the importance of themselves, do I look good, have I got the right type of car, how popular am I. In this, they and indeed we, can fail to realise we are a small part of a bigger whole. Our young men faced constantly with messages that tell them “it’s about you”, can be lulled into a sense that community is secondary to their wants. Our job here is to create a place where they appreciate humility and importantly character, where the quality of our relationships is paramount, where resilience and respect abound. St Edmund’s is a tiny place in the grand scheme of things.
For each and every Eddies man, there’s a countdown ticking. One day it will finish and they will leave us. While our place on the Hill might be a home, unlike the pale blue dot it’s not the only home or community they will be part of. They will leave to join a larger community which is in itself a small part of a larger whole. At every turn then, if Eddies Men are to make their difference, they will need humility to understand that the world revolves around a centre that is not them, and character to form positive relationships where each person is valued. At every turn we wish for them, that they will express who they are respectfully, resiliently, responsively and reflectively as Eddies Men.
