Today was an emotional day for me as I went to court to testify for an innocent woman I had seen getting beaten up by a beast of a man a couple years ago on a street corner here in Montreal. The wheels of justice move slow, but it was worth the wait because the douchebag will likely be locked up for at least a few years, and this nice woman won’t have to worry about getting attacked again. It took four hours, but when all was said and done I felt proud to live in a country with a justice system like Canada’s. Being in that building for so long, and seeing so many other people coming and going — all there to make our country safer — made me realize how I was just one small piece of something so much bigger than I had ever fully realized before.
Right before I left that court house earlier today I was pulled aside by the police officer who was there to administer the case, and she thanked me in person for doing the right thing — far too many witnesses, she said, slip into the shadows when they see these types of crimes happen and don’t have the courage to participate in the legalities required for justice to be served. She shook my hand, I went on my way, and I felt rewarded when I turned and happened to see the woman I came to testify for walking off into the city with a big smile from ear to ear.
Not that it has anything remotely to do with my experience today, but I just watched the beautiful video above from filmmakers Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet who built a scale model of our solar system in the Nevada desert — which required a 7-mile diameter flat surface in order to build it truly to scale (if Earth is the size of a marble). Maybe it has something to do with the emotional roller coaster I’ve been on today, but the damn thing brought me to tears. Yup, I cried like a baby. Once again — in a totally different way — I was given a powerful reminder of how tiny our individual lives are here on planet Earth. Every now and then a day comes along that puts everything into perspective, scale, and focus all at the same time. (Source: The Creators Project)
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