Perspective

I don't know if anyone watched "I shouldn't be alive" on E on Saturday evening. My husband and I were under the impression that it was just another series like "Lost", and wanted to give it a skip, but by chance we watched the last half an hour. It was just so riveting - disturbingly so. From what we've gathered, it's about people who have very narrow escapes from death and live to tell the tale. Saturday's episode was about two guys who were hiking in the Australian rain forest (i think!), when a huge boulder fell onto the one guy's legs. The other one had to race back to the ferry to get help. He had to make it in a specific time, otherwise the ferry wouldn't go for another week, and his friend would surely die. It had us on the edge of our seats. Eventually the guy managed to get help, and the boulder was lifted off his friend's legs. Even though he survived, his legs had to be amputated.

Then in last night's nature slot on 3 they had a very interesting programme about the sun. They talked about solar flares, sun spots, the sun's age etc etc. Basically what they said was in a billion years from now the sun will be too hot for people to be able to live on earth. It will be 70 degrees during the day - the sea will melt and the planet will slowly become inhabitable. Eventually the sun will become a red giant - it will increase in size 1 000 fold, and the earth will be lucky not to be swallowed up by it; and then it will become a white dwarf and loose all its power. It is an absolute miracle that the earth is placed exactly at the correct distance away from the sun at the moment to allow for life on earth.

After these 2 thought-provoking shows, I really felt like I had some perspective. It just made me feel better about the problems and issues my husband and I are facing at the moment. Not that I feel unimportant, but just that I have a feeling of inclusion in something greater... Something much greater than me or my husband, or you, or all of our problems put together...