Get the Bigger Picture

The last scene of DreamWorks' 1998 movie Antz has remained one of the scenes that I am quite fond of - like ever.

And, the scene is interesting not because Z wins against a totalitarian society - yes, that is great and all. But, I was quite awed because of the way life’s context is taken to a whole new level. After about 60 min of dwelling on the various difficulties and what-not in the ant society, the viewer realizes the true picture - a picture of the scale that we were dealing with so far.

The ants are living, fighting, and dying for a tiny piece of land that would probably take a human mere seconds to survey in its entirety, and a few more seconds to cross it on foot / or lose interest.

Humans live for an infitesimal time when compared with the rest of the universe. This is not to say that humans are insignificant (which they probably are), but the sphere of their influence is extremely small.

In this small duration of time, fellow human, do not despair from failures. Learn your lessons, pickup the thread, and start running again. You don’t want to get busy with the next insignificant conflict that gets everyone worked up. Make life happier for yourself and to others around you.