The visible sky is illuminated not only by stars. All amateur astronomers, even
those equipped with simple binoculars, can over the course of an hour observe
many brilliant objects orbiting the Earth – space debris.
NORAD (North American Space Defence) maintains a catalogue of this debris and
its orbit. To date, there are 9,000 pieces of debris measuring more than 10 cm
(2006), and hundreds of thousands measuring a centimeter.
This is a growing problem for new space missions, inhabited or not, that must
deal with the difficulty of avoiding any collisions with the debris left in
orbit since the beginning of the space age. In fact, even objects measuring
millimeters in size can be extremely harmful due to the enormous differentials
in speed that exist in space.
These problems may appear inconsequential to us as we walk on the surface of the
Earth… But by analogy they teach us, among other things, that details initially
appearing totally insignificant become more pronounced with time and can become
uncontrollable “monster problems” if we let them go unchecked.
The belief that our path in life is linear does not correspond with experience;
the life of each person also follows the natural law of cycles. Whatever an
individual places into orbit in his life, here and now, he will find it much
bigger on the horizon of his future.
Philosophers from India synthesized this idea into the word “karma”: any
activity, whether it be physical, psychological or mental, and as limited and
unobtrusive as it may be, generates an effect that itself becomes a cause acting
according to the nature of the force that set it in motion.
If as the saying goes, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, it would be a good
inspiration to act in our own lives with quality and vigilance toward all of
those little things that appear simple, even insignificant, but that are seeds …
of future embarrassing difficulties … or on the other hand of future
satisfaction.
Everything depends on each individual deciding to become a disciple of life.
