"Look again at that dot. That's Here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
- Carl Sagan, "A Pale Blue Dot" (1994)
Everyone is familiar with the image above. It is all we know. It is all we have experienced. Inside it, there are multiple objects, beings, feelings, and beliefs. It is all we could ever hate or love. It is all. Out of it is the utterly overwhelming deep darkness of the unknown. And yet it doesn't compare to the infinite dynamic that we might eventually discover. To be honest, it seems big enough. Especially per our point of view - as human beings. If it was indeed as small as a mote of dust, how could we all fit in here? Well, it depends on the perspective, of course. For us, the Earth is enough to provide a
meaningful and unbelievably fantastic life. If not the Earth, then what would you say it's overwhelmingly small in your point of view? Since we are already talking about it, you might say, "a speck of dust is pretty small." It is definitely small. So small that it doesn't really make a huge impact on us if it actually exists or not. Correct? Maybe. Let's change our perspective a little bit more.
The year was 1990, and NASA's Voyager 1 was traveling through our Solar System, gathering data that would revolutionize how we saw the Universe. It was flying near Neptune when it was commanded to "look back" and take a picture of "home." That photo would later make a huge impact on the way humans placed themselves as members of the cosmos.
It is indeed a shocking realization when we understand that the planet that shelters us and everything we hold dear is, in fact, a pale blue dot, a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. So fragile and exposed to any harm that might come in our direction. Analyzing it through the photo's perspective, we would say that that shiny dot is simply a star or a mere glowing object. Who would imagine that something so important and significant to us would look so small? It undoubtedly provokes some weird thoughts. "Are we that unique?"; "Is our planet as magnificent as imagined?". Those are good reflections, but perhaps this path is not the best one to follow at the moment. Thanks to technology, our observation reach has increased dramatically throughout the years. Even though it's still a fraction of what is out there, the fact that no other planet remotely resembles the quality and abundance of life we have here on Earth should tell us something.
It does not matter how small a speck of dust might seem as long as it means something to those involved.
The projected sizes of a speck of dust on a window sill and the mote of dust of a planet that embraces over 7 billion people only differ based on the analyzer's point of view. It can be somewhere 3.7 billion miles away, traveling near the outskirts of our Solar System, or sitting on a desk 30 inches away from that window sill. Its importance seems to be equal.
It is funny how, for us here at Imperial, tiny specks of dust justify both our very own existence as human beings in this vast Universe and as a professional janitorial company in this vast market. They share value and meaning. The Earth provides us value by creating a - so far - unique environment that allows life to flourish and thrive. Those specks of dust that continuously appear on your horizontal
surfaces give us the purpose of providing our customers a clean and healthy environment, allowing them to focus on creating value for society.
We take pride in dealing with something apparently so small. We know it by heart that, if the responsibility of handling cleaning services is awarded to someone that can't see the value that a dust-free environment brings to the workplace, the result is usually not satisfactory. That is why Imperial brings passion and vision to the table. Perspective is key. It all depends on the way you look at buildings and surfaces. For us, specks of dust are huge. Just like Earth. And we exist to provide the proper treatment that only someone who knows everything about it would be able to.
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