Like many, I to look at the stars. I the fact that ours is just one among many. What I love astronomy is that our constellations tell a story. Our constellations were from mythology. Mythology was our first attempt to understand the world in which we We put a God in everything and those would give us our reasons. Why is the sky Who blue? Gods. How men have nipples? the will of the Gods. Why does this wine so good? a God in it! And for a while, there was not a single that the gods could not explain. We believed that their anger gave us Their despair us rain We whispered our desires to them, believing that their would sustain us. Those Gods... were stories. But stories a large part of how we learn burn lessons into our memories They become a part of how we we can remember almost everything, Right down to that first unbearable bee When we learned that tiny blue marble we call the world has rules. Rule number one: don't fuck the bees! An unforgettable brought to you by your memories. I that I grew up loving mythology. I remember the of the titan Atlas, who was also the god of astronomy The original global positioning system sending sailors safely home by telling which constellation to keep starboard. He taught us about the stars, and in all this, while he held up Our blue dot. But is caught between two different tellings of his story. In the first, he leads a rebellion against Olympus and is then to hold the heavens on his shoulders for eternity. In the second story, he is chosen to be the guardian of the pillars that hold up the and sky. I the second story. It that the world is not a punishment; but rather, a responsibility. But how can just one be charged such a burden? How can just one be for all this? When I think of Atlas, I think of a drop of rain I think how unfair it would be to hold a single drop solely responsible for making the world clean again. I remember how my grandmother tried to explain our to me- She me a story She said the ground and the sky, they love each But they have arms So rain; that's how they hold one another. I began to see how the earth and sky need other. But I about us. In this perfect design, where do we Which piece of the are we? constellations, I began to see a connection between dots and numbered my thoughts And drew from one to the next. I began to see us in the context of a bigger picture, sharpening the blur slowly into We are Atlas. I saw that this pale dot, this one world, is all we get. will be no reset button, no new operating system, no downloadable upgrade We will not be allowed to trade in our old world for a new one climate control or better fuel efficiency We get one at this. all reports of second chances; we get one. And yet we draw advances on our future as if we one day won't be accountable- We will. We are. The human race runs toward a finish line emblazoned with the worlds 'too and wonders, Will we cross it? we already? We are faced with the impossible talk. And okay to be afraid. Our dilemma stands before us like a mountain carved into a blockade, the sheer magnitude of our would be enough to dissuade anyone. How do we the world? We lay in our curled into question marks, wondering can we do? Where do we Is hope a glue crazy enough to hold us while we're falling apart? The burden immense. But we can do this. We must take the martial approach to loving our planet- as self-defense Forget the cost There will be no other thing as worth as this! Nothing more important; as precious; is home. All of our stories and end here. We are sheltered an atmosphere that has given us every single breath we will ever take Every monument we have ever made has from the flesh of our planet. Water like blood, like soil, bones like granite It is not a myth, there is no debate, are in Fact is, there's been any question. We are crisis. We dismiss the truth not because we can't accept it, but because to commit ourselves to change is a scary prospect for anybody. The alarming part of the statement 'we are facing crisis' Isn't the 'crisis', the word 'we'. Because those two letters take the responsibility from one and rest it squarely on the shoulders of everybody. We are now. But our strength will come from finding a way to share in shouldering the of turning the impossible into somehow Somehow, we do this. We can do this. We can apathy; we can reject uncertainty We can be the new chapter in our We not see change immediately We must act in faith as the hour hand grips the minute hand and they land on the eleventh We must believe like the seed that is possible to see. Never seize the flower, it grows it must become more than what it was It changes, because in growth, all of its can be unlocked. Change is like rain, it starts with a drop. Just one, like our blue dot. Caught in an endless waltz called gravity, we the sun, wondering who, if anyone left the light on. We are constellations drawn the earth, we are connected to one another, we are bound. We must behave as the arms that connect the to the sky. We must try to be more the rain. Our stories may differ, our goal is the How do we save our pale dot? We act as the rain, realizing that individual drop is as equal and important as any. We act as one. Now, we are many.