After another sleepless night, I was feeling very discouraged. Then I saw this on the hallway wall.

[jaxexpat]

16. Whether we stare in awe or grimace in dismay, a universe remains grinding......

away at our comprehension.

There are, within the range of our telescopes, colossal random galaxies colliding. Sometimes two, sometimes more. Seemingly in slow motion, they have been crashing at each other for billions of years, occasionally at velocities best expressed in fractions of light-speed. They are themselves often thousands of multiples the size of our own galaxy, millions of light years across. Imagine if sound were transferable through the void of space as it is through our atmosphere, then the sonic vibrations created by this near-eternal mashing and tearing of stars and matter would render the chemistry of our world unrecognizable. The few physical principles of nature to which humans subscribe are tested and manifested moment to moment, aeon to aeon in this maelstrom of forces. This gravitational mishap has been and will continue since long before our sun created planets and long after it decomposes, captured by another's gravity, perhaps setting our solar system components adrift in a near-eternal loneliness. And as magnificently violent and spectacular as this is, it occurs throughout the currently known universe, on uncountable occasions. Commonly rare, rarely common, words fail.

"Concept exercises" such as this can provide perspective regarding the relatively trivial collision that is our current political train wreck. Like a prayer whose "amen" carries quite a wallop.