In the movie Sorry to Bother You, one of the early scenes is the main character Cassius ruefully wondering about his tiny existence in the cosmos. I related to that scene, because we humans do feel unfathomably small and powerless to the potential of the universe. These kinds of things used to cause me a little bit of existential dread.

But this fixation on these forces that are so beyond our human capability occupy his thoughts because he is personally directionless. He hasn't yet found something to live for, or something which is significant enough to him to give his life meaning. So he considers himself a meaningless piece of space dust.

By the end of the movie, Cassius does find something more tangible, more immediately relevant, and very meaningful to him. It's his solidarity with the workers against the hyper-exploitative Amazon-esque company. It's his fight to have a decent life here on Earth. I read this as a commitment to solving solvable human problems rather than dashing yourself against the immutable wider universe.

The problems of the stars stop crushing his inner thoughts, because finds that he has real work to do that matters to him. And that's how I feel about it, now, too. I think the space stuff can be scary. It's mostly fascinating. And either way, it affects me little and is truly out of my control, so I shouldn't have to fear it.