Al and I went to the Tech Museum in San Jose for a marriage-nurturing New Year’s Eve excursion, specifically to see the IMAX movie “Hubble” which had been recommended by Mom.  IMAX for any movie is overkill in my humble opinion but it was quite interesting nevertheless.  It focused on the astronauts who went up and got to fix the dang thing a few times before it started working properly.  What amused me was that the narrator kept saying things like “one bump on the doohickey with the whatchamacallit and the telescope would be ruined.”  What?  These folks were doing this work floating in space on the end of a tether wearing what amounts to a full head and body snowsuit, while the sun “rises” and “sets” every ninety minutes.  It looked to me like they were bumping things into other things all the time!

I have often said I was born too early for space travel (I have also often said I was born too late because I like antique-ey things, but there you are, and so am I).  I would LOVE to go up in space but considering the hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back just about killed me, I doubt I’d pass the physical for a space trek.  Oh well, next life.  Although after watching the movie, which ends with a journey to as far as the Hubble can “see,” I think the chances of the ball of energy called “Mary” ending up arriving back on Earth as a human again is probably pretty slim.

We so enjoyed that movie we went back out and bought tickets for the next movie “The Human Body.”  Here’s where things got pretty surreal.  We went from watching outer space with the emphasis on OUTER, as far as only a telescope can see, a phenomenon that is so big it defies comprehension, to the inside of the human body, emphasis on the INNER, things only a microscope can see, phenomena so small they defy comprehension.  Red blood cells, little nerves inside the cochlea of your ear, the hairs of which you can apparently put thousands of together and it still will be only as big as one human hair.  Teeny tiny stuff.

It gets me contemplating, that’s for sure. Some of that teeny tiny stuff deep inside us looks suspiciously like some of the really big stuff in outer space.  What if we are just creepy teeny things inside a really big body, or even teenier things inside a teeny body which is itself in a bigger body, bigger than what the Hubble can see?

Champagne.  I need champagne.  Happy New Year and here’s to a blessed and health 2011 for all, not to mention a little peace would be a nice touch.