April 01, 2026

On The Upside with Marley

Wonder Can Help Overcome Self-importance And Even Hate

Wonder has a quiet way of dismantling self-importance and fear of others or hate. It doesn’t argue with the ego, it simply melts trivial things away.

Few images illustrate this better than the famous “Pale Blue Dot.” In 1990, the spacecraft Voyager 1 turned its camera back toward Earth from more than six billion kilometers away. Our entire planet appeared as a tiny pixel suspended in a ray of sunlight, barely visible against an eternal vast void.

From that distance, every triumph of civilization disappears into a single speck. All the empires, victories, grudges, borders, arguments, and battles shrink to a point smaller than a pixel. On that dot lived every human who ever was, every parent, child, artist, tyrant, dreamer, and skeptic. Every god and every ruler, good and bad.

Moments like this awaken something deeper than current events.

Wonder re-frames the story we tell about ourselves. It reminds us that our personal dramas, however consuming they feel, unfold on a planet that itself is a tiny island in a vast cosmic ocean. The universe is not hostile to our self-importance. It simply does not notice it.

Yet this realization does not diminish us. Paradoxically, it enlarges us.

When wonder replaces self-importance and anger, humility emerges naturally. The smallness of our world does not make life meaningless… it makes it precious. If everything we have ever loved exists on a fragile blue dot in the dark, then kindness, curiosity, and cooperation suddenly matter more, not less.

Standing before the immensity of the universe, we begin to understand that the real miracle is not our power, our status, or our certainty. The miracle is that on this tiny pale blue dot, conscious beings exist at all, capable of looking outward and asking questions.

And sometimes, if we are lucky, capable of being humbled by the answer.

Editors Quote Book

“Life is a paradox. We enter the world empty-handed, strive to acquire everything, and ultimately depart leaving everything behind.”

—Unknown

April Fools

I once had a kind of funny but also kind of jarring joke played on me on April Fool’s Day. I was on my way to my office when a phone call came in from a member of the band I was in, saying that the rehearsal space had been broken into and my $10,000 guitar amp was gone. He was convincing because he mentioned the things he didn’t take. Toward the end of the call, he revealed it was just a prank, but I’ll admit that it did cause a funky mood for a couple of days afterward. What April Fool’s pranks have you received or played that are memorable? Go to theperkolator.ca and comment about it in this issue!

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In 1957, the British broadcaster BBC aired a news segment showing a Swiss family harvesting spaghetti from trees. At the time many viewers in Britain had never seen uncooked spaghetti, so the story seemed plausible. After the broadcast, hundreds of people called the station asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC reportedly advised them to place a strand of spaghetti in tomato sauce and “hope for the best.”

Speaking Of The Great Spaghetti Harvest

How To Deal With Paranoia

A man walked into a library and asked the librarian, “Do you have any books on paranoia?” The librarian leaned forward and whispered, “They’re right behind you.”

A Smart Dog

A man bought a new dog and bragged to his friend, “This dog is so smart he can do math. ”His friend laughed. “Really? What’s two minus two?” The dog said nothing. The owner smiled proudly. “See?”

This Week In History

April 1:  1976 – Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

April 2:  2005 – Pope John Paul II dies after a 26-year papacy.

April 3:  1882 – Jesse James, famous outlaw, is shot and killed by Robert Ford.

April 4:  1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 5:  1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

April 6:  1917 – The United States declares war on Germany in World War I.

April 7:  1969 – The Symbolic Birthdate of Of The Internet when RFC 1 describing ARPANET is published.

April 8:  1974 – Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s record.

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