Its all about perspective

Repeat after me "its great to be alive" "today is going to be fantastic, I know that because I woke up" (the day I don't wake up will really suck!)

I read an article about a comet striking Jupiter. The comet was thought to be the size of the Earth...yep that's right, the size of the Earth! The comet did not hit Jupiter two million years ago, or two thousand years, or two hundred years or even two years ago. Lots of times astronomers will tell you the supernova they witnessed actually happened two thousand years ago and it took that long for the light to reach us. This event happened Friday!

Most people when they hear Jupiter think "so what, Jupiter is a long way away". When you consider the size of the universe, a comet hitting Jupiter is like 747 hitting the house 2 lots down. Even worse, depending on the comets origin, had the trajectory been a single degree different, it would have struck the Earth. The comet was traveling 37 miles per second. At that rate it could finish the Indy 500 in less than 14 seconds. It could go around the Earth in 11 minutes. It could travel the distance from the Moon to the Earth in less than 2 hours. We know comets have struck the Earth many times in the past. In fact, if not for a big strike, we might be dodging T-Rex and Velociraptors. We know it will happen again, the only question is when, and how big.

What struck me about this was not the proximity or the size of the strike, but the fact that no one saw it coming. It was not like the movie Armageddon, where the scientists spotted it weeks before the actual strike. No one saw it until AFTER it hit the planet! It was not spotted by the Hubble space telescope, or by the scientists at JPL or NASA, it was spotted by a 44-year-old amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, who works as a computer programmer and lives in the town of Murrumbatema just outside of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

If "the big one" hits the Earth, we will probably have just enough time to bend over and kiss our butts goodbye (and that's only if you are on the opposite side of where the comet strikes)

"So why the astronomy lesson Mark?" This blog is really more about perspective than what's in the sky around us. In my life the things that seem to set me off are the little things, like when the kids leave the TV and the lights on in the family room when they go to bed. Or when the kids leave the empty cans and dirty dishes in the family room, or when they do both.

I have my share of problems in life (sometimes I think I got more than my share). If I choose to focus on my problems I could make myself feel pretty miserable. My kids have their share of bad habits and irritating behaviors, if I focus on them, I can make their lives miserable. My wife is perfect so I have no complaints (she may be reading these, i don't know, but better safe than to get hit in the head with a shovel).

The truth is we all have things in our lives that can drive us crazy, if we let it. Most of us have far more to be grateful for than to complain about. You woke up today, that's a great start. One of the books by Dale Carnegie is a book called "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living". If you haven't read it, get a copy. If you have read it, read it again. One of my favorite quotes is "most people are about as happy as they decide to be.". It is all about perspective. From one point of view we have problems, from another point of view we have opportunities, how you choose to look at it makes a huge difference.

I'm not going to ignore the problems I have. I'm going to work every day to solve them. I'm not going to ignore my kids bad habits, I'm going to work every day to change them. I'm just going to do it with a smile on my face and love in my heart, because there is so much more for me to be grateful about. And at least my wife is perfect (I try to say that a few times a day).

Our problems in life are mostly the small ones, and the big problems, the Earth killing, mind numbing, drive you crazy, put you in the hospital, make you beg for death, comet type problems, are no different than the comet that struck Jupiter. You never see them coming, and when you do its too late!

As usual, just my opinion, and one that is shared by most of the happy people you meet!