I am a nerd by nature. If not that mocked, stereotyped nerd from the 80s, at least a nerd in lifestyle, in job, and why not, even in the glasses that age made me wear.
I love video games, mathematics, physics, languages, reading, programming languages, and logical solutions for the most diverse problems.
On the other hand, I am a “believer,” a Christian. I believe in things I cannot prove. I have seen and lived things I cannot show, nor explain.
I have dear friends, with whom I would like so much to show a little bit of what happens inside me. Probably you who are reading this, and know me personally, have already heard me talk about Christ, His principles, His life in me. The way I feel influenced and in love with His kingdom and the desire I have to be a “mini Christ”…
For these friends of mine, and for you who reads me, I leave one of the discussions that happens in this movie, which spoke to me so much today. I’m moved after watching the movie, and now at 1 a.m., I’m listening to the soundtrack while I write… I make Carl Sagan’s words (yes, the master who wrote Pale Blue Dot), interpreted by Jodie Foster, my own…
[translation of the video above]
Panel member: Doctor Arroway, you come to us with no evidence, no recordings, no artifacts. Only with a story to ask for credibility. More than half a trillion dollars were spent, dozens of lives lost. Are you going to sit there and tell us we should accept all of this… on faith?
Michael Kitz: Please answer the Senate’s question!
Ellie Arroway: Is it possible that this didn’t happen? Yes. As a scientist, I have to say yes.
Michael Kitz: Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You admit that there is absolutely no physical proof to corroborate your story?
Ellie Arroway: Yes.
Michael Kitz: You admit that you may have hallucinated this whole thing?
Ellie Arroway: Yes.
Michael Kitz: You admit that if you were in our position, you would respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism?
Ellie Arroway: Yes!
Michael Kitz: Then why don’t you simply withdraw your testimony, and concede that this “journey to the center of the galaxy,” in fact, never took place!
Ellie Arroway: Because I can’t. I… had an experience… I can’t prove it, I can’t even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever… A vision… of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny and insignificant we are and how… rare and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, and that we are not alone! I wish… I… could share that… I wish, that everyone, if only for one… moment, could feel… that awe, and humility, and peace. But… that continues to be just my wish.