Fic: Facts
Title: Facts
Rating: G
Characters: Sherlock
Words: 704
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Sherlock contemplates all the facts he knows about stars and people and what meaning one of them could possibly have.
Author’s notes: Originally written for thegameison_sh challenge prompt "Out of the Ordinary". Comments and criticism are always very welcome! Enjoy! :)
Facts
~~~
"To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
~~~
Humans are made of stardust. Among other properties (like consisting mainly of electrons, protons and neutrons in various configurations) they have inherited the remarkable feature of being completely ordinary and thus utterly boring.
Stars. Why do people care so much for them? I know all the facts: As an estimate, there are more than 10 sextillion stars in the universe and about 200 to 400 billion of them in the Milky Way. On average in this galaxy, every year 7 new stars are created, one star dies as a white dwarf and about every 50 years one star explodes in a supernova. These are only some of the facts and surely most people don’t even know that much. And still they care. Why? Stars don’t mean anything. Individually, each one of them is tiny and insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe. In their entirety, they form an indistinguishable and uniform mass. To me, they all look the same. True, some are a bit brighter than others or a bit larger. And surely scientists would argue that there are many other differences; they consist of different elements, have different temperatures, different ages and different life-expectations. Yet what difference does that really make? Can they tell me anything about my cases? Can they give me new evidence? No! They are ordinary, they are boring, their data is useless to me; I could just as well delete it.
Yet amongst more than 200 billion stars of our galaxy, there is one quite extraordinary. If you looked at it, it would seem just like a hundred thousand other stars, but for us people on earth it is very special. We call it our sun and of all the places of the whole universe it is only here in its surrounding that life is possible in the form we know it.
People. Again, I know all the facts: There are 6,986,951,000 people on earth, 62,262,000 of them living in Great Britain and 7,825,200 in central London. Every minute 266 children are born and 108 people die. And for some obscure and illogical reason, people love nothing more than caring about other people. But why? What meaning can one person have? Individually, each of them struggles with one funny little life, completely negligible to the rest of the world. In their entirety, they are anonymous, exchangeable, meaningless beings. True, I can see their obvious differences easily; they have different features, different ages, different occupations and different manners. And I can deduce everything about every one of them just by looking at them. All that it does is making them predictable, though. In the end, despite knowing, seeing and deducing, I don’t see their meaning. I don’t care for any of them. What difference do they make? None of them has any influence on me, on my life - I don’t need them. They are so utterly ordinary; every one of them feels just like any other, none even worth a second look. Boring! But they need me - all of them are potential murderers or victims, so knowing them is vital for solving my cases. Oh, how much would I like to erase their data as well!
Yet amongst all 7,825,200 people living in London, there is one quite extraordinary. If you looked at him, he would seem just like a hundred thousand other men, but for Sherlock he could soon be unique in all the world. Luckily, the chances of Sherlock meeting him are much better than the chances of finding life in the universe. In fact, the odds happen to be exactly one million to one.
“This is an old friend of mine, John Watson.”
Note: All of the quoted facts are true to the best of my knowledge. I used the following sources to look up numbers (please read if interested ^^):
General Facts about Stars
Stars in the Milky Way
The Population Data Sheet 2011
Rating: G
Characters: Sherlock
Words: 704
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Sherlock contemplates all the facts he knows about stars and people and what meaning one of them could possibly have.
Author’s notes: Originally written for thegameison_sh challenge prompt "Out of the Ordinary". Comments and criticism are always very welcome! Enjoy! :)
Facts
~~~
"To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
~~~
Humans are made of stardust. Among other properties (like consisting mainly of electrons, protons and neutrons in various configurations) they have inherited the remarkable feature of being completely ordinary and thus utterly boring.
Stars. Why do people care so much for them? I know all the facts: As an estimate, there are more than 10 sextillion stars in the universe and about 200 to 400 billion of them in the Milky Way. On average in this galaxy, every year 7 new stars are created, one star dies as a white dwarf and about every 50 years one star explodes in a supernova. These are only some of the facts and surely most people don’t even know that much. And still they care. Why? Stars don’t mean anything. Individually, each one of them is tiny and insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe. In their entirety, they form an indistinguishable and uniform mass. To me, they all look the same. True, some are a bit brighter than others or a bit larger. And surely scientists would argue that there are many other differences; they consist of different elements, have different temperatures, different ages and different life-expectations. Yet what difference does that really make? Can they tell me anything about my cases? Can they give me new evidence? No! They are ordinary, they are boring, their data is useless to me; I could just as well delete it.
Yet amongst more than 200 billion stars of our galaxy, there is one quite extraordinary. If you looked at it, it would seem just like a hundred thousand other stars, but for us people on earth it is very special. We call it our sun and of all the places of the whole universe it is only here in its surrounding that life is possible in the form we know it.
People. Again, I know all the facts: There are 6,986,951,000 people on earth, 62,262,000 of them living in Great Britain and 7,825,200 in central London. Every minute 266 children are born and 108 people die. And for some obscure and illogical reason, people love nothing more than caring about other people. But why? What meaning can one person have? Individually, each of them struggles with one funny little life, completely negligible to the rest of the world. In their entirety, they are anonymous, exchangeable, meaningless beings. True, I can see their obvious differences easily; they have different features, different ages, different occupations and different manners. And I can deduce everything about every one of them just by looking at them. All that it does is making them predictable, though. In the end, despite knowing, seeing and deducing, I don’t see their meaning. I don’t care for any of them. What difference do they make? None of them has any influence on me, on my life - I don’t need them. They are so utterly ordinary; every one of them feels just like any other, none even worth a second look. Boring! But they need me - all of them are potential murderers or victims, so knowing them is vital for solving my cases. Oh, how much would I like to erase their data as well!
Yet amongst all 7,825,200 people living in London, there is one quite extraordinary. If you looked at him, he would seem just like a hundred thousand other men, but for Sherlock he could soon be unique in all the world. Luckily, the chances of Sherlock meeting him are much better than the chances of finding life in the universe. In fact, the odds happen to be exactly one million to one.
“This is an old friend of mine, John Watson.”
Note: All of the quoted facts are true to the best of my knowledge. I used the following sources to look up numbers (please read if interested ^^):
General Facts about Stars
Stars in the Milky Way
The Population Data Sheet 2011