Field Marshal
Elder Lister
This is without doubt the greatest picture ever taken. It is the picture of the earth taken by Nasa's Voyager 1 exactly 30 years tomorrow, Friday, FROM 6 BILLION KMS away.
In case you are wondering, the earth is that little dot hanging in a beam of interstellar light. It is a picture of awe.
Think about it for a minute.
Everything you know or have heard - everything that has happened in human history written and unwritten - happened on that little dot.
Every great king, emperor and general - Nebuchadnnezzar, Caesar, Alexander, Genghis Khan, Abe Lincoln, Mandela - lived there.
Every evil dikteta - Moi, Mobutu, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Bush - killed people on that small dot.
Every kingdom and republic was founded and foundered there. Every billionaire, princess and pauper, every farmer, teacher and soldier was born there.
All life - dinosaurs, elephants, houseflies, crocodiles, bonobos - all lived and died, and will die, there.
All laughter, all tears, all grief all joy, all drama, all wars, happened on that little dot.
Without it space would still exist, but we would not be here.
It is a picture of majesty, of awe, of God, of the begining and end of time.
Look at the scale of space and see how insignificant we are, how small, how weak, how incosequential.
And yet here we are, today, kuringaringa na apartment block moja Umoja, or a Sh4million car.
Eti wewe ni mdosi, mheshimiwa, tajiri. Eti uko na matako, sura, masomo.
Looking down upon those less fortunate, not knowing that we are all living on a dust particle hanging somewhere in space.
Look at that dot again and tell me where that plot of yours is, all the wealth, all the power, your money.
Me, thankfully, I know that I am nothing but stardust, a creation of the sun, a tiny dot on a speck of dust.
I am not more important or less than an ant, and whether I live or die doesn't matter at all.
I am nothing, and to nothing I will return.
Its not important.