“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.”
A considerable number of decades ago, I remember hearing those words at bedtime – because that is when we used to listen to the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. It is a miracle that I ever got a wink of sleep! But the fairy tale has become more than just the giant wishing to make bread out of a child. The adaptations over the years have made Jack into a ‘Robin Hood’ of his time as he steals (gold coins, a hen that lays golden eggs, and a golden harp that talks) from a Leviathan thief to alleviate the poverty of those living at the base of the beanstalk.
Over time, we are introduced to other giants as well.
- Sultan Kösen, born in 1982 in modern Türkiye, is the tallest man alive at 8 feet, 2.8 inches.
- Born in Illinois, Robert Wadlow towered above an average man after reaching eight feet, eleven inches before he died in 1940.
- Goliath is a famous Biblical giant once felled by David’s slingshot.
- The New York Giants command the Google search results for ‘giant.’
So, besides the Sultan and the boys with the pigskin, do giants exist today?
The definition of a physical giant is anyone over seven feet tall. I suspect there are several who qualify. But we also see the word giants used in descriptions to explain greatness - Giants of Industry, Intellectual Giants, and Scientific Giants.
It needs to be pointed out that the term can be granted to a person or group based on an agreement of greatness in a particular field of research or knowledge. As it happens, it can also be adopted by those who bestow the term upon themselves.
This is where the storyline becomes a lesson.
The 35th Anniversary of The Pale Blue Dot image was celebrated a month ago (February 14). I must note that for 35 years I have been ignorant of its existence. Even though I would not have qualified to receive the benefit, this event never made it to the bedtime story status then or now.
But I have learned something this past week. This is an image that should be burned into our consciousness. It should be a focal point for humanity to ponder, wonder, and apply to everyday life throughout the world. This mandate is useful when considering perspective.
We, especially in Western Society, seem to think that bigger takes center stage. Bigger is more important, Bigger is the goal. And it is true that bigger might make a great many things better.
But, how about us and our humanity? Do we become better people when we become ‘bigger’ people? Should we spend most of our energy and resources to become giants of one thing or another?
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) expressed his thoughts when viewing this photo. You may have opinions about his life and work that fit or do not fit into your worldview. You can apply your judgments as you feel necessary. You can certainly work hard to defend your religious, spiritual, and even scientific opinions as compared to his career, worldviews, and self-declared agnosticism.
Nevertheless, I would encourage you to read or Watch on YouTube, his comments about the pale blue dot. If we allow ourselves to listen to others, we will come away with insights that our internal bias prevents us from realizing.
In this image, we can easily see (and feel) that we are not and will never be giants. That is okay. We live in and as part of a universe, a galaxy, a solar system, a planet, a country, a neighborhood, and a household. We need to determine our place in all of this.
You might not feel the smallness of ‘us’ like I do. But when I look at this photo while thinking of my existence, I cannot help but make a connection to God and others. We are here on that blue dot and the greatness we achieve as individuals or entities seems to matter little. But if we desire to be great, to be giants, we just might attain that status by committing to a life of service to all things small – to every small person and animal, to each small thing that preserves and keeps our spinning ball healthy and at peace - for all.
- Why do we fight about everything?
- Why do we seek to hoard while depriving others?
- Why do we appreciate the colorful beauty of gardens but reject dancing with those who seem different?
- Why do we recognize the love of family until that family does not match the skin color or gender of our own? Is our love better than theirs? Does not the love of God rain down on everyone?
- Why do we believe that we are better? Why do we think of ourselves as giants and others as well, let us just say “less than”?
- Why do we devalue the lives of others when the result is devaluing our own?
“We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That is here. That's home. That's us. “On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every 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.” Excerpt Carl Sagan’s The Pale Blue Dot.
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