1 week Ago By John Van Sloten
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. In a world that seems to be spinning out of control — where “up” is “down” and lies are normative, where corruption grows and neighbours threaten, where stock markets shake and borders are breached, and where our incredulity at incessant trolling leaves us exhausted — I had a moment of peace, sitting on a bench, facing the Rocky Mountains.
All is not lost, I thought. These mountains are still here. With the sun on my face, I took a few deep breathes and started to feel grounded again.
For just a few seconds all was still and the world was as it should be. In the quietness of that place, I thought I saw the curvature of the earth along the ridge of the mountain range. Contemplating the planetary nature of our trembling world, I remembered a YouTube video I saw years ago that asked, “How fast are you moving right now?” The obvious answer was “not at all”— if you’re stationary and watching a video.
But then the narrator reframes the question, “But what about relative to the rest of the universe?” The clip goes on to describe how fast we are really moving. Sitting on a bench in Calgary, I was spinning around the earth’s axis at 1,056 km/h. As that was happening, the earth was orbiting the sun at 107,290 km/h.
As that was happening, the sun was moving toward other stars at 69,202 km/h, even as it was moving upward — relative to the Milky Way plane — at 24,140 km/h. In addition to all of this, the sun was orbiting the centre of the Milky Way, moving at 777,313 km/h, meaning I was moving at about 869,046 km/h as a Solar System. Of course, the Milky Way was also moving through the universe — at approximately 2,092,147 km/h.
Altogether, I was moving through the universe at a combined mind-boggling speed! Sitting there I felt a breeze. It reminded me of how the Bible often describes the Spirit of God in wind-like terms. I was not alone, and things were more held than I knew.
Even if the earth’s foundations are shaking, it is still very much in orbit. Even though “forces for good” in our world seem to be changing, some things will never change. We are on a bigger trajectory than we know — a larger and longer story is being told.
Even as the earth is just a tiny speck in an infinite universe, it’s still firmly held in place. Your life is held in place. You’re breathing.
Your heart is beating, neurons are firing, and your immune system is fighting unseen invaders. You have a home, food to eat, and people who care for you. Right now, your DNA is repairing itself tens of trillions of times per second, your brain is producing natural opioids if you’re stressed, and the trees in your neighbourhood are miraculously forming buds—”like something almost being said” (Philip Larkin, The Trees.
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