[ dabble ] Space and Perspective

Sometimes it’s nice to shift perspective.

Up close, what we use to separate ourselves into human categories is easy to spot.
It’s the tangible things – skin colour, religious beliefs, choice of clothing, the rags or the riches, our language, the lines on a map, and a whole bunch extra that form the lines we use to divide humanity.

To take a step back is to shift our perspective. To take a few million steps back is to change perspective completely.

Not many people have had the chance to get strapped into a rocket and blasted into space, but one of the main ideas tied to those that have made the journey, is that of a changing perspective. Seeing earth as one small ball suspended in space renders the lines we use to divide ourselves totally invisible.

Thanks to some people with really good cameras, and the astronauts who keep the International Space Station orbiting around the earth, we get some insight on that bigger perspective through the video below. We also get to see some of the most beautiful video ever captured on film.

Press play and watch time lapse scenes that can only be described as spectacular.

Below the video you will find quotes from Astronauts who have glimpsed earth from distances most can only dream of. Inspiring.

Perspective is a beautiful thing.

For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
- Donald Williams, Discovery & Atlantis Astronaut

When you’re finally up at the moon looking back on earth, all those differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend, and you’re going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and why the hell can’t we learn to live together like decent people.
- Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Astronaut

 I think the one overwhelming emotion that we had was when we saw the earth rising in the distance over the lunar landscape. It makes us realize that we all do exist on one small globe. For from 230,000 miles away it really is a small planet.
- Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Astronaut

The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me—a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don’t show from that distance.
- Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Astronaut

This planet is not terra firma. It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for. It’s lonely. It’s small. It’s isolated, and there is no resupply. And we are mistreating it. Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we’ve got.
- Scott Carpenter, Mercury 7 Astronaut

I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.
- Michael Collins, Gemini 10 & Apollo 11 Astronaut

The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth.
- Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud, Discovery Astronaut