Welcome to the Space Age!
I was expecting a parcel this morning. And it arrived. Although, I have to say I wasn't expecting it just to be left on the doorstep by the postie who didn't even ring the bell (but that's another complaint.)
My real complaint was the size of the package because I knew what was inside.
Now it's a long time since I did any maths or had any use for a calculator, but I decided to do some not-so-quick calculations and I reckoned that approximately 99.0541% of the package was either other packaging or empty space. (I've spared you the extra 25 decimal places that the calculator came up with.)
Now that is a lot of empty space!
As I said - welcome to the space age!
The whole question of excess (and often unnecessary) packaging is a big one from an environmental point of view and it's time we got a grip of it. As consumers we surely ought to start demanding less wasteful packaging.
But... it occurred to me even as I thought these thoughts that the Universe itself has an awful lot of 'empty space' in it. Even the most 'solid' of solid objects, it seems, is mostly empty space. And it's true right down to sub-atomic level.
In fact, when you begin to contemplate it, the whole thing is really quite mind-boggling. Then again, my mind is probably quite easily boggled... 'cause it too has lots of empty space inside.
