Big Picture

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http://frank.mtsu.edu/~rbombard/RB/Texts/LookingGlass/ch5.html

`Oh, don't go on like that!' cried the poor Queen, wringing her hands in despair. `Consider what a great girl you are. Consider what a long way you've come to-day. Consider what o'clock it is. Consider anything, only don't cry!'

Alice could not help laughing at this, even in the midst of her tears. `Can YOU keep from crying by considering things?' she asked.

`That's the way it's done,' the Queen said with great decision: `nobody can do two things at once, you know....'

......Alice Through the Looking Glass....Lewis Carroll

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When I was suffering acutely from Severe Clinical Depression, most everyone (except my son) used to ask me to "Consider the Big Picture".

They didn't know that it was the Big Picture that was hurting me and making me feel so small.

They ought to have asked me, if anything, to stick to the Little Passing Moment.

Truth is that when Depression sets in absolutely unannounced, the mind runs riot...and thoughts go haywire at the speed of light. What you would like to have is a Brake if not Stopper of Thoughts. Stick to just one pleasant thought and forget the rest...Best is No Picture at all..good clean sound sleep..the first casualty.

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Anyway what does my Big Picture look like?

At a height of 5' 6'' I am luckily about the average height here. As such the wonderful wife I could get is about a foot shorter than me.

Were I a foot taller at 6' 6", I would have to forget all thoughts of marriage within our community.

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On a proper logarithmic scale, at 5' 6" I am middle class between the smallest elementary particle and the Big Picture Universe.

And my Earth is middle class among the planets...my Sun is middle class among the stars...my Galaxy is middle class among the galaxies... my age of about 15 billion years is about middle age of the System I live in....

It is almost as if the Middle Way Buddha designed me rather than any of my profligate Hindu gods.

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"...In this sutta - known in English as The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma - the Buddha describes the middle way as a path of moderation between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. This, according to him, was the path of wisdom. The middle path does not mean a mid point in a straight line joining two extremes represented by points. The Middle Way is a dynamic teaching as shown by the traditional story that the Buddha realized the meaning of the Middle Way when he sat by a river and heard a lute player in a passing boat and understood that the lute string must be tuned neither too tight nor too loose to produce a harmonious sound......"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_way

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How Big or Small are things really? And how are they measured?

It is silly to call a totally arbitrary (as of now) Rhodium-Iridium or whatever alloy preserved in Paris or so as the Standard Meter, replicas of which have to be kept wherever needed. But that is the way things are in Science...it has a history to obey that refuses to go..like MPH in the Great US.

Michelson had the sense to appreciate that the wavelength of a nice specral line that could be produced anywhere in the Universe would be a better Standard of distance.

And with it comes the realization that Light of various wavelengths is the crux of all Distance Measurements.

Triangulation would do to measure the size of the Moon and perhaps the size of the orbit of the earth and the Astronomical Unit, the distance between the earth and the Sun. We use light to see things through our telescopes.

For measuring larger distances to the galaxies and distant stars, say, we use light again..the so-called Standard Candle Stars; Doppler Effect and the Cosmic Distance ladder...Light all the way..

Going down the length scale from me to bacteria again needs light..microscopes instead of telescopes...Dark Field Microscopes, Phase Contrast Microscopes..

And in the subatomic domain we hit particles with photons of various wavelengths, smaller and smaller, and measure their scattering properties.

Nice that God said: "Let there be Light!" and the Big as well as the Small Pictures followed.

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All Modesty is false..so is all Immodesty...in the Personkind.

It is all relative.

The one striving hard for the most modesty would envy one who appears more modest; and so with immodesty..the Big Bully would envy the Bigger Bully:

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Wild West: Small town on the Frontier: Midday:

Cries go up resounding; "Big Brother Bull is Coming! Big Brother Bull is Coming!"

Folks run helter-skelter and pell-mell indoors and shut themselves in.

The Bartender is a bit slow downing His Front Shutters.

A great resounding galloping horse stops in front of his shop. A Big Boots jumps down, shoots from both his hips with his stereo-pistols, Gatecrashes the Bar, shoots open a Big Bottle of Scotch on the Counter, downs the whole of it in one swell gulp, smacks his lips and growls....

The Bartender crouching under the Desk feels bold, peeps out, and says: "Have another bottle, on the House!"

"Nope! I must Hurry...Big Brother Bull is Coming!"

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