An astronomical reminder that life is short, the universe is enormous, and your morning coffee is traveling considerably faster than you think.
Here’s something to consider while you’re driving through Monterey Bay this morning:
You’re traveling through the galaxy at approximately 828,000 kilometers per hour.
Yes, you.
Sitting in the traffic on Highway 1.
You are, quite literally, hurtling through space at 230 kilometers per second.
And you thought Highway 1 was dangerous.
Our Solar System Has a Transportation Problem
Most of us learned in school that Earth revolves around the Sun. Every year, around we go, arriving back where we started.
Nice, comforting little circle.
Except there’s a rather important detail our elementary school diagrams neglected to mention.
The Sun is moving, too.
Our entire solar system is orbiting the center of the Milky Way. One complete lap takes about 230 million years.
Meanwhile, Earth continues circling the Sun, following it along on this spectacular galactic road trip.
So although we return to roughly the same position relative to the Sun each year, we’re continually traveling through new territory in the galaxy.
In the time it takes to read this post, our solar system travels about 18,400 kilometers along its galactic orbit.
That’s considerably farther than the trip from Monterey to Santa Cruz.
And unlike Highway 1, there are no construction delays.
The Beautiful Part
Think about what that means.
The Monterey Bay you’re looking at this morning has never occupied quite this same place in its journey through the galaxy.
Neither have the fishing boats leaving the harbor, the farmers heading into their fields, the sea otters floating in the kelp, or the barista preparing your morning coffee.
And neither have you.
We tend to think of life as repetitive.
Another Monday. Another commute. Another foggy morning. Another disagreement about what music to play.
But there’s something wonderfully reassuring about realizing that, even when life feels repetitive, we’re never simply standing still.
The universe is moving. Our world is moving. Our communities are changing.
And we’re all experiencing this particular moment together, for the first and only time.
A Soundtrack for the Journey
Here at KRML, we like to think that a great radio station does something rather special.
It connects people sharing a place, a moment, and a little music.
The song might be familiar. You might have heard it a hundred times.
But you’ve never heard it at this particular moment, in this particular place, with precisely these people sharing the journey.
That’s worth appreciating.
So the next time you’re driving along the Monterey Bay, take a moment to admire the scenery, appreciate your neighbors, and enjoy the music.
We’ve never been here before.
And at this speed, we won’t be here for long.
Keep exploring. Keep listening. KRML 94.7 FM — Monterey Bay.
Featured photo: Zachary Moneypenny / Unsplash