This past week I was on a show called "Spirituality Raw." It was fun. I was on after a woman who thought her dog had been possessed and before a guy who thinks he's the re-incarnation of the Apostle Paul. I actually enjoyed his segment.
Anyway ... I mostly talked about the importance of reality based decision making. The response to my segment was that almost everyone emailed in to tell the hosts about the challenges they face in life. Which got me thinking. I think one of the reasons people gravitate towards woo (supernaturalism), is because they are afraid. They are afraid of a variety of things. But one of the biggies is they are afraid they are insignificant. So they choose to believe in a fairy tale of their choosing in which they are not insignificant.
And that bothers me, because it turns out that embracing your insignificance is the key to finding meaning. Seriously, it is. When you realize the true vastness of the universe, you begin to realize how completely insignificant you are and how presumptuous it is to claim that you matter in the vastness of it all. And instead of that making you feel small and insignificant, it turns out that when you embrace this reality, you begin to realize how amazing it is you exist at all. And you realize how special you are. After all, there is no one exactly like you, even if you have an identical twin.
In other words, by embracing a fantasy that you matter, you prevent yourself from truly grasping just how special you are. And that's a shame.
So, to help you along on your journey towards insignificance, here is a little video from a children's show called "The Animaniacs." The relevant lyrics: "It's a great big universe and we're all really puny, we're just tiny little specs about the size of Mickey Rooney."
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