So, I’m thinking that some further explanation about seeing The Big Picture could be helpful at this point. Either way, you’re gettin it lol.. First off, seeing The Big Picture (in my sense here) is not something that people naturally do. I did not wake up one day and spontaneously had the ability to see The Big Picture. I had to train myself for years (at least it took years for me, I suppose you could boot camp it, but I highly doubt the effectiveness). And it is you yourself largely; you have to train yourself, at least part of the way. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret – most people do not care for The Big Picture. It is a profoundly uncomfortable place to be, even for people who pride themselves on seeing the big picture (not capitalized). There is a point at which most people absolutely and firmly do NOT want to zoom out any more and often become a wee bit hostile to the very idea, if I’m being totally honest.

Here’s the problem: the world is big. No duh, but stay with me for a moment. The world is really fuckin big – from stratosphere to core, from pole to equator, from mountain range to amoeba – the world is really fuckin big and you, a single human being, are really, really, really fuckin small. But it’s a bit more complicated than that – it turns out the world, our world, is really fuckin tiny. Like, not even a pixel’s worth in the picture of the universe. And for some strange reason, I have found that most people do not like coming face to face with the depth of their own insignificance. Add to that that it’s actually pretty easy to avoid (unless some asshole comes along and shoves it in your face *nonchalant whistle emoji*) – all you’ve gotta do is stay pretty close to a human perspective. It so happens that humans are exactly the right size to be perceived by other humans; not too small to be noticed like an ant or too big to be taken in all at once like a mountain range. And as long as you don’t zoom out too far, the big picture that you see will still have a basically human dimension to it – even if it’s just the names of “great” individuals attached to the deeds of thousands. If you can still make out a few individuals then the individual keeps its significance. Therefore, You can still have significance. The problem with The Big Picture isn’t whether you’re significant or not, it’s that it’s not even an option, and that’s a real bummer if you care about that sort of thing. And at least in my experience most people do, in case you were curious.

           Doomers, however, do not. (care about that sort of thing) It just so happens that what I do care about and quite frankly love is Life. I don’t even mean my own life – even though I do happen to be pretty fond of that one in particular – super attached and I truly do want what’s best for it. No, here I mean Life with a capital L. The creative part of the universe. The music of the fucking spheres. That type of what-nots and what-have-yous. I said before how caring about humanity and the wider world are both kinda two aspects of the same thing, well, that thing is Life. Life is beautiful and amazing, and full of all kinds of joys and pleasures, and Life is cruel and uncaring, and full of all kinds of pains and woes. And it so happens that we are tall enough to ride the fuckin ride, so what the hell else could anyone really want?

           Significance, my dude, significance. It turns out most people want to feel significant. I can totally jive with that – I want to be significant, too. Just not to the universe. To me it’s kind of a weird thing to want, honestly – I’m perfectly content with the universe staying the heck out of my business. Indifference is one of the things I love about it, truth be told.

Anyway, I’ve found that most people do not share my attitude about this at all. Like even mildly. Shit, not even trepidatiously. And what this all amounts to is that the general reaction to you trying to zoom out too much is some variety of either “why would you want to do that?” or “what the hell is wrong with you?” (One of these two is always in the facial expression if not in the words, but usually in the words, too.) Meaning that you’re gonna have to learn to put a lot of the pieces together under your own guidance. Of course there are others who have traveled their own paths as well who give you some mentorships and pointers here and there. But nothing really organized or systematic, at least in my experience.