We are ALL just Stardust...

Last weekend I went with Wes to see the movie Sunshine. I admit it was mainly because it had two things I enjoy in a big screen: Scifi and Chris Evans. To my surprise the movie had a very well woven plot with many philosophical messages. When you go see these type of movies you have to put the hardcore science aside and submerge yourself with the premise of the flick. The whole story happens 50 years in the future. Our Sun is "dying out" there is no apparent explanation for this as we all know the Sun will not die of natural reasons for another 5 billion years. So we are left with the idea that "something" happened maybe some sort of Q-Ball hit it.

What did strike me throughout the whole movie is how small and vulnerable we are compared to the immense space. Humans had to use all fissable material from earth to create these two stellar bombs with their respective ships. The bombs were the size of Manhattan and even that in stellar size is minuscule. This bomb has to be dropped into the Sun and "reignite" it. The meat of the movie relies on the journey and not on the mission per se. As we reach the climax of the story one of the character quotes Carl Segan and says "We Are All Just Stardust", I was amazed how this resonated to my Catholic self.

Sometimes I find spiritual/religious meanings in the most random places. Being an out gay man people assume I am just an atheist sex machine with no moral or spiritual compass. Maybe I do project that to make myself more "unreachable" and theoretically not prone to disappointments. On the other hand people who really know me can see how far from the truth that premise is.

As we watch the news and read the headlines about all the trivial things that happen around us I ponder on all the reason we find to compartmentalize ourselves; race, sexual orientation, nationality or political affiliation. In the end aren't we all made up of the same leftover molecules from millions of years ago. Maybe love is just that... you meet someone whose molecules come from a star that was orbiting the supernova your stardust came from and your gravities just want to get back together.