i am once again crying about the simple truth that people have always been people, and everyone who ever lived had a favorite color or childhood nickname or favorite bedtime story or beloved pet, and that every single one of us matters and has mattered and will continue to matter even after the sun bakes the Earth to a cinder

and that the first object we ever sent to the interstellar void was a little robot that says "hello! this is who we are. this is what we sound like. we exist, and we hope someone else does too."

and yeah, maybe it's just not possible to remember every specific person who ever lived in the exact way they wanted to be remembered. but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying b/c even after 8,500 years and two tsunamis, we still know that people who lived in the now-flooded North Sea knew how to make chewing gum, and they disposed of it just as carelessly as we do. and isn't that incredible??