What was your greatest epiphany?

[Boose]

Despite all attempts at prevention, shitty health problems will crop up. All I can do is eat right and exercise so that I'm as strong as possible when they occur. And be grateful when everything's going well!

 

[Sanstar]

If I’m not the one doing the task, I shouldn’t dictate how.

The only change we can easily support is one we initiate. Imposed change requires persuasion, negotiation, bribery or ultimatums. Hence, the really clever among us will make needed change seem like the other guy’s idea.

How rare empathy is, even among those who profess to be caring.

Don’t accept the sucker’s choice: in order for me to win, you need to lose and it’s always either / or. We should be smart enough to create solutions that are good/better for all involved. Instead of either/or; why can’t it be both.

Never stop learning.

 

[Car-Guy]

There are supposedly hundreds of billions of galaxies which contain billions of stars each and galaxies are separated by millions of light years of empty space. Even our nearest galaxy neighbor is millions of light years from us. So I was amazed to realize that all the stars we can see in the night sky with or without using a telescope are only those in the Milky Way. Maybe this is obvious but an epiphany for me.

And those numbers are probably low... But there's no other life out there...

 

[Music Lover]

Despite all attempts at prevention, shitty health problems will crop up. All I can do is eat right and exercise so that I'm as strong as possible when they occur. And be grateful when everything's going well!

That's how I look at it. I can't control a lot of things or stop the inevitable, but I'm 100% in control of my diet and exercise. A strong body makes every day life easier and in the unfortunate event of a bad fall or accident, my muscles will help protect me.

I'll be 60 next month and have too many friends who are out of shape. For example, in one of my bands only 2 of the 4 us are capable of carrying 60 pound PA speakers up or down a flight of stairs.

 

[aja8888]

When I was about the same age, I was on a ballistic missile submarine. We just assumed we would never get all 16 of our missiles launched before they found us and sank us.

The upside of that realization is that you probably will be substantially less fearful for the rest of your life.

You made me think about your last sentence and I have to agree.

 

[brett]

Leave that sense of entitlement at the door. Take a long, hard lookin the mirror and don't blame others for your self inflicted misfortunes. Financial or otherwise.

 

[Koolau]

Similar experience:

It was 1966, in the Air Force, and I was overseas on a nuclear missile launch team with four 1.1 megaton warheads sitting on top of our four tactical missiles, all ready to be sent "East" when the call from the 38th Tactical Missile Command came.

Our Commander came to our hardened control center one morning while we were on alert status and told us that if we had to "let them go", it would take 12 minutes to get them off, warhead armed, under booster. We knew that. We practiced that monthly. Then he said to us that we would never get the 4th bird off because the enemy Mig's would be "laying eggs" on the site at minute 11.

Oh. At 23 years old, I just realized I could be dead in an instant and never get to go home again.

Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse.

Although, after being hit by nukes, no one is going to look good.

And here we are again, back to the edge....

So have as much fun as possible while there is still time -

When we got the text message warning Oahu that there was an incoming nuclear missile from North Korea, my epiphany was that I was ready to go. I was with DW and was in a church (on a Saturday morning - long story) and I was worried about only two things: Would I survive (bad) and what kind of world would my kids be facing. A nuke attack has a way of putting things into perspective. Glad I got to learn the lesson and live to put it into practice. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

There are supposedly hundreds of billions of galaxies which contain billions of stars each and galaxies are separated by millions of light years of empty space. Even our nearest galaxy neighbor is millions of light years from us. So I was amazed to realize that all the stars we can see in the night sky with or without using a telescope are only those in the Milky Way. Maybe this is obvious but an epiphany for me.

My epiphany along these lines was that the proof of other galaxies is less than 100 years old (in my parents' young-adult time frame!) Some astronomers had guessed that various nebulae were perhaps distant galaxies, but the proof didn't come until 1924 when E. Hubble was able to measure the brightness of variable stars in the Andromeda galaxy. From that info, he calculated the distance which proved to be far outside our galaxy.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/astronomy/chapter/the-discovery-of-galaxies/

 

[Koolau]

Despite all attempts at prevention, shitty health problems will crop up. All I can do is eat right and exercise so that I'm as strong as possible when they occur. And be grateful when everything's going well!

That's how I look at it. I can't control a lot of things or stop the inevitable, but I'm 100% in control of my diet and exercise. A strong body makes every day life easier and in the unfortunate event of a bad fall or accident, my muscles will help protect me.

I'll be 60 next month and have too many friends who are out of shape. For example, in one of my bands only 2 of the 4 us are capable of carrying 60 pound PA speakers up or down a flight of stairs.

And no matter how long we live and how healthy we are (or how well we look after ourselves): None of us gets out of here alive!

 

[Time2]

There are supposedly hundreds of billions of galaxies which contain billions of stars each and galaxies are separated by millions of light years of empty space. Even our nearest galaxy neighbor is millions of light years from us. So I was amazed to realize that all the stars we can see in the night sky with or without using a telescope are only those in the Milky Way. Maybe this is obvious but an epiphany for me.

My epiphany along these lines was that the proof of other galaxies is less than 100 years old (in my parents' young-adult time frame!) Some astronomers had guessed that various nebulae were perhaps distant galaxies, but the proof didn't come until 1924 when E. Hubble was able to measure the brightness of variable stars in the Andromeda galaxy. From that info, he calculated the distance which proved to be far outside our galaxy.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/astronomy/chapter/the-discovery-of-galaxies/

Yes, this make the James Webb satellite so exciting. I wonder what new things we will learn and can't wait for the pictures.
I just read that it takes 680 years for the light from the North Star to reach us. Then they got better measurements using European satellites, and it was 424 years, well in 2012 the found it is 323 years for the light to get to us. But, it is still a long ways away!