We are getting it all wrong.

I read an article last month that has haunted me ever since. Not because it was scary. Daily headlines take care of that. It simmered on the front burner in my head because it reminded me of something I discovered as a child.

If I was awake at night in a completely dark room, I could open my eyes and see absolutely nothing in the pitch black. After a while I felt like I was detached and floating in outer space, far away from the Earth. I imagined what our planet must look like from thousands of miles away. In my mind's eye I could clearly see the blues and greens drifting in a vast dark ocean of stars and glowing distant auras that I could not identify. I was a kid. Naming things was not as important as seeing them.

Astronaut Ron Garan spent 178 days on the International Space Station. His words instantly reminded me of my childhood experiences.4

"The problem is that we don't see ourselves as planetary. When I looked out of the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch........

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