There is no force greater in our lives. Every morning the sun rises, the alarm goes off, and we crawl into the bathroom to start a new day refreshed. The earth has turned us towards the morning once again. We are having our first sunny day in a week.

Every place on our planet has the shape it has because of the spin and orbit of our planet. Life itself comes from this process, and the water rises and falls to a rhythm set by it.

Perhaps this is all obvious, yet it is worth considering in those small stolen moments awakening each morning. Every aspect of how we measure time is defined by this dependable yet stirring process.

While it has been said that humans have developed the ability to destroy life on this planet, no one has ever presumed that we can harness the force to stop the turning. All of this is simply beyond our comprehension, and yet it marks our lives.

Ancient people were able to contemplate this and measure it, and many worshiped it as a benevolent master. They may have had a deep understanding of the rhythm, but none even proposed that they could master it.

The sun is probably the best example of the tension between the mundane and the obvious that I think is at the heart of our daily struggles. It even defines how we start our life each day. Contemplating the obvious may not seem productive, but a strong half-step back from the little battles we fight each day can give us a little perspective.

Nothing we do is as important to us as the sun rising each morning. What we do with that time is a mix of the essential acts of eating, sleeping, and enjoying time with others or our species along with more petty and venal acts of declaring territory, status, and wealth.

Which of these matter? As King Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. Not when it comes down to people, at least.