Our tribe is indigenous to
the third planet out
from a star called the Sun.
Our origins are not clear but we do know that
DNA is the language of life on Earth,
and it’s spoken by every body
from microscopic beings to humans.
*
We also know that...
what humans call “night”
is what our planet calls “my shadow.”
Our planet’s shadow is always on the opposite side of us from the Sun and it goes out into space for almost a million miles. If you were suspended in space, gazing down at Earth, you’d see that her shadow is shaped like a cone, making her look like a ball of ice cream in a cone of shadow.
*
If you gaze into the cells that form your body,
you find that your cells are formed of
smaller things we call molecules.
If you gaze into your molecules, you find they’re
made of smaller things we call atoms.
If you keep on zooming inward, you find that
your atoms are made of smaller things
called electrons, protons, neutrons
and other bizarre little “sub-atomic” particles.
Now that you’re inside your atoms,
you’re in the quantum realm.
This innermost level of reality is magical because
when two subatomic particles are joined & then separated,
they keep behaving in a way that shows they’re still together.
We know from repeated scientific experiments
that they are still joined because whenever one particle
changes its spin, the other does too - so they keep spinning
in complementary directions, just as they always did
when they were physically connected.
The first few times this experiment was conducted,
scientists assumed that one particle must be
sending a signal to the other one.
But their assumption has been shattered because
no matter how far apart the particles are made to go,
they always change their spins simultaneously.
Distance does not mean separation.
This is considered the most important discovery
ever in science because all of the particles in the universe
were joined in one singularity at the Big Bang.
Today, 14 billion years later, all of these particles are
spread out everywhere, from the farthest star
to your own body - while remaining joined in universal unity.
These particles seem separate to our outer senses,
but on the innermost, subatomic level,
this separation is an illusion.
We can explore this quantum realm with the tools
that physicists have developed. We can also use the tools
developed by contemplatives down through the ages.
The quantum realm isn't ego-friendly,
so visits there can be magical and/or maddening,
depending on things we’ll be exploring as this site grows.
Until then we honor this...
The subatomic level is where plants are transforming
our Sun’s light into our Earth’s life
through the quantum magic of photosynthesis.
*
By this time tomorrow, all of us on this planet will be
more than a million & a half miles from where we are now,
thanks to our orbiting around the star that's growing our food.
By this time a year from now,
we’ll have completed a 600-million-mile orbit
and we’ll be back at the spot in our orbit where we are now.
Best of all, every time you’ve completed another orbit,
you’ve earned yourself a birthday party!
A note from our scribe, Harriet Witt:
harriet@passengerplanet.com
What you see sprouting on this site is being fertilized by
the compost from the 2002 version of this site.
What ends up growing here is up to you and me
because it emerges from a question
in the core of our beings:
What does it mean that we’re passengers on
the only planet in the known universe
that supports our kind of life?
No academic discipline is wide or deep enough
to address this question, so it’s up to us
to weave the threads of our different perspectives
into the story that answers this.
While we don’t yet know how this story will go,
we do know many of the threads weaving it.
We also know that our loom is this:
If we derive our identities from actions that undermine
the well-being of our biosphere,
then our story will be about our extinction.
If we derive our identities from actions that support
our biosphere’s well-being,
then our story will be about our evolution.
Please do share your perspectives to help us write
the story you want your grandkids to read:
harriet@passengerplanet.com
I apologize for any photos not adequately credited! Among the many images that aren’t mine are ones I’ve grabbed online over the years for my classes and for my volunteer work with the organic/regenerative Hawaii Farmers Union United. When I grabbed them, I had no idea I’d be using them again on a website, so I didn’t always make note of their sources. Since I can’t imagine conveying the message of the Passenger Planet Society without them, I hope you’ll let me know if you or someone you know deserves recognition for photos I’ve failed to credit. Harriet Witt