perspective and scale

after the third flight of the day you begin to question how much longer you can avoid deaths icy touch.

it doesn't help that i am penning this while i am a solid 20,000 plus feet above the earth in a winged silver twinkie rocking in every sorted direction.

it becomes increasingly difficult to steady a pen in such turbulent times.

thoughts become clouded at such a distance from solid ground.

it is comparable to breathing through a narrow straw.

the more you struggle to pull those dainty drags of air thorough such a dauntingly thin

pipeline, the head becomes woozy and your mind claws frantically for life.

at this height, while looking down it becomes abundantly clear how minuscule and delicate human life really is.

it is purely a matter of perspective.

perspective and scale.

yes scale.

let me explain.

the easiest way to put this scale idea in perspective for those currently reading this that are residing upon terra firma (solid ground the the layman), requires only a few items.

one: yourself.

two: your thumb.

three: a foreign object.

i.e. a building or possibly an extremely bored and well to do friend.

the options are truly endless.

and last, but certainly not least, distance.

now simply stand or sit, the choice is yours, a hefty distance away from your building, friend, whatever option you have decided upon.

stand/sit a far enough distance away from your chosen item so that its size, in scale, is much smaller than your own.

now lift your right or left hand, whichever suits your fancy, and extend your evolved opposable thumb and cover said object.

it becomes muted.

gone.

covered and non-existent to the human eye.

now, to really understand the fragility of it all, human existence that is, you may also incorporate your index finger of the same hand.

simply place your index finger visually above the top of your chosen object residing in the distance, and your opposable thumb directly underneath.

as if you were holding a tiny delicate toy.

now for the fragility part.

much like a vice, begin to bring your index finger and genetically superior opposable thumb together.

ultimately capturing and squishing the dwarfed sized object of your choice between the two.

feel free to incorporate sound effects of a squishing manner to get the full effect, and simply for the pure fun and enjoyment of the process.

CONGRATULATIONS!

you have now become a war monger!

a destroyer of worlds!

not bad for a high school dropout.

not that you are, but inevitably some individuals participating in this example of human fragility most likely are.

despite what popular belief says, the majority of them can read.

so i am told.

with your new found title of "world destroyer" imagine the view from 20,000 plus feet in the air.

how small and weak building look from such a great distance.

how unbearable tiny and ant-like the human race becomes.

how easy it would be to wipe it all clean in one fell swoop.

how with that one thumb you can wipe out an entire city, colony, race.

this is how some people in history have viewed the world.

how some find it so profoundly easy to rub out what they no longer desire to see, hear, or feel about the world.

and they did this on ground level.

it is all a matter of perspective and scale.

terrifying.

isn't it?