Total Perspective Vortex

I was reading an interesting passage in Maggi Dawns book "The Accidental Pilgrim", which is my lenten read. She had found a thin place on Lindisfarne, and it gave her a sense of her own position in the universe "
Not too important, yet not too insignificant either".

I was reminded on the Total Perspective Vortex from the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". This device extrapolates the entire universe from a small piece of matter. When you are put in it, you are given a sense of your own size within the entire universe, the result of which will blow your mind. It is a cruel form of near-execution, and a clear reminder that the one thing we cannot afford to have is a sense of perspective.

I think it is important to have a proper sense of your own position and role in the universe. But which view is correct? The TPV does, quite rightly, make it clear that we are a minor speck of dust on a minor speck of dust, and in terms of the whole of existence, we are nothing. We live for a blink of an eye in the history of the Earth, never mind the universe as a whole. People who want to make their mark in history should remember that our history is an insignificant blip in the story of the earth.

If we accept the current understanding of the universes future, the history of life in the universe - complete from the earliest emergence of life to the complete extermination of life across the universe - is a minor episode in the whole lifecycle of reality. Our existence is a speck of dust on a speck of dust for a mere blink of an eye.

And yet Maggis insights are also important. The Christian message is that, despite this apparent insignificance, we are important. We have a significance, we have a meaning. Is that just wishful thinking? I don't believe so - we are more than just dust. We have something that makes us different, a sense of the divine inside us. Putting these two perspectives alongside each other - taking Maggis perspective and understanding it properly - should give us a proper humility, but a proper respect for ourselves and others.

We are not too important. But we are also not too insignificant. If we lose either side of this then we lose a true view about who we are, which can lead us into arrogance and egotism, or despair.We are not nothing, meaningless, worthless. We should be in awe of the size, scale and magnificence of the universe, but we should also be in awe of the reality that is ourselves. We - you - are fantastic. Never forget it.