Zoom Out!

The word Zoom took off like a rocket during the pandemic of 2020.
With human contact reduced to emojis and screens, Zoom became the lifeline of business survival.
It also showed some impressive talents — by day and by night — offering entirely new perspectives.

In photography, to zoom means bringing objects — yes, people too — closer into the frame.
Maybe that was the original spark behind the Swiss Halving Initiative,
because even then, most people in a Zoom meeting appeared only halfway in the picture.
Many weren’t in the picture at all — but that’s another story.
The Zoom Age, like the Halving Initiative, offered half-baked images.
We never really knew if those men in ties and jackets were fully dressed below the camera line.
Bermuda shorts or business pants — who could tell?

Alright then — let’s flip the lens and zoom the other way.
Let’s Zoom Out, as far as it goes.
Imagine the view from the window of the ISS:
a calm blue planet, gently turning in one direction — and everything else turning with it.
From up there, Mother Earth looks perfectly healthy and at ease.
Thank you, Zoom Out function.

From that distant perspective, you can’t really see the Zoo below.
Here and there a thin smudge of smoke — campfires, or maybe shellfire.
Who can say from up there?
Earth looks so ordinary from space.
No fever spots, no sweat beads.
All seems well.
All seems well?

Well — people aren’t visible at this range.
They’re too tiny, smaller than atoms in the lens.
Harmless. Unthreatening. So peaceful.
What a beautiful sight — our only home within thousands of light-years,
glowing blue and quiet.
Though “quiet” might be a deceptive word.
The planet spins on, indifferent, letting things run their course.

Shall we zoom in again?
Get a closer look at the details — humanity, wars, hate speech, politicians, the oppressed, the protesters, the dead, the hungry, the billionaires, the yachts, envy, abuse, and all the other fine ingredients of civilization?
Oh my goodness — no, please don’t.

Sorry — the list wasn’t even complete.
Zooming in too fast, we almost missed them —
the fighters for human rights, for peace, for solutions, for humanity, for the vulnerable, for clear thinking and feeling.

They may have been run over by history’s wheel for a moment — but they’re still here.
And they’re growing.
And they’re making a difference.

Thanks, Zoom.