I asked you recently if you could contextually grasp yourself in the greater architecture of this kind of view, this “picture frame” across time and space, and you said yes, that it made you aware of your tininess, that you’d still be “the size of an atom” in comparison to Out There. That really wasn’t what I meant, although your statement is true prima facie. That’s a literal interpretation, certainly. But I meant something deeper, something that Sagan himself alludes to in his soliloquy. He called astronomy “humbling *and* character-building.” Those are two separate concepts, although they do frequently make joint appearances. Character evolves, just like all of nature does. It evolves, again much like nature, through the press of heat, light, struggle, failure, success, through a cycle of trial and error. Sagan says “building” not “assassination.” It’s an image of rising to meeting, not falling back.

Sure, it’s humbling — easily so — to stare at the sprawl of the heavens and feel dwarfed. But it should also be inspiring; Sagan certainly found it thus. In the flash of inspiration, character fires white-hot. It rises to meet challenges, to grow beyond its limitations — to see what could not be seen before, to contemplate in new ways, to evolve. Along with the heavens. Still see yourself clearly in that context? I hope you do.