I watched National Geographic's "Journey to the Edge of the Universe", kicking off NGC's "Space Month", participating in the 2009 International Year of Astronomy (yay!). I initially thought the program was only an hour long, and was a little dismayed when at 45 minutes, we were still in the solar system.

I wonder about people's conception of the universe and whether it merely extends to what is in the news – which is our space exploration within our solar system. When asked about the universe, do people not venture beyond our solar system, or beyond what can be seen in the night sky, all of which, with few exceptions, is within our singular Milky Way galaxy? Was NGC perpetuating this misconception?

Thankfully, I was wrong. It was a two-hour special. It did take 90 minutes to get out of the Milky Way, but that's a little more appropriate. The vast majority of what we know about the universe is within the Milky Way galaxy. However, I don't understand how, in presenting the universe in larger and larger scales, the formation of galaxy clusters was overlooked.

I love taking mental journeys like that. Despite the animation of the program, the universe is reality, it's out there. It's worth it to speculate or try to get our minds around the incredible vastness of the universe to put into perspective the less than grains of dust our lives are on this planet. And to appreciate the infinite value of our less than grains of dust lives.

I imagine standing on a shore at night, just like as when we look up at the night sky, we are standing on a shore of the universe (a metaphor used in the program, no doubt borrowed from Carl Sagan). But for me, imagining the journey into space is much like imagining the journey into death. A journey into indisputable fact, but experientially unknown.

I play with the idea of death, the temporary release of physical being and attachment into some primordial energy, being equated with the universe, or oneness with the universe. Our life being is a formalized and conceptualized version of this energy that pervades the universe.

I want to dive into that ocean. I recall the meditations from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and hope I can tap into them when my time comes. The book, however, is only a suggestion conceptualizing one cultured version of the death experience. I don't take it as literal but subject to my personal interpretation.

We are driven by our beliefs, but we're pitting beliefs against facts, and the fact is we will all find out the truth, we will all die, just as certainly as there is a universe that stretches billions of light years when we look up into the night sky.