By reading the story behind the selfie overlooking the farthest point on Earth, there is one photo that cannot fail to be mentioned, the Pale Blue Dot. In the dark background, there is a dot, a blue dot, only a few pixels in size. What is that? That is the Earth. This is the most distant selfie from Earth, taken by the Voyager 1 probe in 1989. The Voyager 1 probe was launched and is about to fly out of the solar system. At that time, scientist Carl Sagan convinced the surrounding scientists to try to find a way for Voyager 1 to turn around and take a selfie of Earth.

At that time, many scientists did not understand it, saying that it was very laborious to just take a photo. Originally, the detector was already six billion kilometers away from Earth. Was it worth it to take such a photo and send it back to Earth for 6 months? And it takes a lot of technical risk. But Carl Sagan convinced them to take the photo anyway. Why? Let’s read a paragraph later.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994. (https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot)

Of course, this passage is beautifully written. That’s why I do have to copy all this passage down for you. To let you feel the value of overlooking it after reading it. It can magnify our world and give us a transcendent perspective. This transcendent way of understanding cannot be given to us in real life; only books and reading can bring it to us.

Otherwise, reading is not about any great principles or methods, but there is one of the reasons that I said, it’s just an ordinary habit and a good habit begins with reading. Then we also could refine some actions by reading some books as I have mentioned previously. I hope what I have shared about my reading and it catches up our interest in reading. There is no more complex action, but you are willing to pick up a book and start reading. Now, stop thinking and take action, read!