to boldly go...

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station stated (non verbatim) that the Earth, when viewed from outer space, is a beautiful world devoid of the usual arbitrary boundaries we see on maps. That in spite of the present international conflicts or even the struggles of daily life, we still live in this beautiful planet. 

Another astronaut also mentioned that the next frontier of the NASA space program would be a manned flight to Mars. He hopes that it would involve an interracial crew working together rather than different space programs competing   against each other.

The current conflicts of this world sadden me. It's as if the only thing that would unite mankind would be an alien invasion or a cataclysmic event akin to the film 2012.

I've posted this before and it bears repeating, we need to zoom out and realize how minute and ephemeral we are. Humility is rare.