[pct-l] Philosophy & Astronomy

On the lighter side of philosophical issues, before you go out on a thru or 
section hike, I recommend that you rent "The Meaning of Life" by Monte Python 
(no relation to Monte "Mad Dog" Dodge, but close).  There is some really bad 
stuff in this movie, however, there is a skit in it that I believe to be 
absolutely classic.  It touched such a nerve in me that I wrote it down and 
have copied here for your enjoyment. It is sung to a simple tune that I 
cannot describe:

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, 
and things seem hard or tough, 
and people are stupid, obnoxious or daft, 
and you feel that you've had quite enough . . . !

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, 
revolving at 900 miles and hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, 
so it's reckoned,
a sun that is our source of all our power.

The sun and you, and me, and all the stars that we can see
are moving at a million miles a day!
In an outer spiral arm, 
at 40 thousand miles an hour, 
of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars, 
it's a hundred thousand light years side-to-side.
It bulges in the middle 16 thousand light years thick, 
but out by us it's just 3 thousand light years wide.

We're 30 thousand light years from galactic central point, 
we go around every 200 million years!
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions 
in this amazing and expanding universe. . .

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding 
in all of the directions that it can wiz.
As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know, 
12 million miles a minute 
and that's the fastest speed there is so . . . . 

Remember when you're feeling very small and insecure 
how amazingly unlikely is your birth . . .  
and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 
cause there's (damn near) none here on earth!

Best regards and Happy New Year!

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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