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Ageless Rhythms
Mixed media on heavyweight paper
81cm x 63cm
2010
Whilst it could be argued that the Universe is indifferent to our human presence our place within time and space is influenced, if not determined, by its perpetual movement.
From our anthropocentric viewpoint on this small planet, apart from the weather and the chaotic and destructive nature of much human interaction, our limited experience of what is happening around us in our immediate vicinity, appears to indicate a kind of day-to-day reassuring stability.
But, in cosmic terms, our necessarily limited but expanding, scientific investigations show that the reality is vastly different.
The earth spins on its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour at the equator, but this speed decreases with latitude becoming close to zero at the poles. We are not aware of this sensation though, as not only are we as individuals spinning at this speed but so is everything we perceive around us.
Similarly, the planet revolves around the sun at a speed of around 18.5 miles a second but again, we are not conscious of this happening. Past cosmic events have literally shaped the planet together with human life and its flora and fauna, it is quite possible that a future event might eliminate all life, or its atmosphere and possibly the planet itself or at least, disrupt its orbit.
So here we are, as Carl Sagan so eloquently wrote: ‘on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ and ‘in our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.’ *
George Taylor
December 2025
Reference: * ‘The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space’ by Carl Sagan (Random House 1994)
