The sky is threatening. Asteroid impacts are a scientific fact. The Chicxulub impact, about 66 million years ago, contributed to a mass extinction. Closer to our time, Tunguska (1908) and Chelyabinsk (2013) show that the phenomenon exists on a smaller scale. A major impact creates a crater and shakes the Earth's crust, but it doesn't "deform" the entire planet. Very large impacts are rare within a human lifetime. In 2022, the DART mission proved that it is possible to alter the orbit of an asteroid.

The fleeting pleasure. Alcohol and drugs act on the brain's reward system, particularly through dopamine. The body corrects the excess to restore balance: this is tolerance, described by the model of opposing processes (Solomon and Corbit) and allostasis (Koob and Le Moal). Protection, therefore, lies not in the pleasure itself, but in the corrective response that makes it disappear. Hedonic adaptation also brings the level of satisfaction back to a baseline.

Fulfillment. Psychology distinguishes hedonic well-being from self-actualization (eudaimonia), studied by Ryff. Self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan) identifies three needs: autonomy, competence, and relationship. The Harvard study on adult development highlights the quality of relationships. Among the obstacles: stress, job insecurity, and constant demands for attention.

Hinduism

The Katha Upanishad (1, 2, 1-2) distinguishes between the preferable (shreyas) and the pleasant (preyas): the wise person chooses the former. The Gita (5, 22): pleasures arising from the contact of the senses have a beginning and an end. Tradition also recognizes cosmic dissolution (pralaya) at the end of cycles.

Buddhism

The fifth precept rejects substances that cloud the mind. Impermanence affects the planet as much as our pleasures.

Judaism

The Flood (Genesis 6-9) is the quintessential cosmic catastrophe, followed by a covenant.

Proverbs (23:29-35) describes the ravages of wine.

Christianity

The Book of Revelation describes cosmic signs but announces "a new heaven and a new earth" (21:1). The narrow gate leads to life, and "only a few find it" (Matthew 7:14).

Islam and Sufism

The Quran describes the End: the sun darkened, the stars scattered (81:1-2). It rejects wine and gambling, whose evil outweighs its good (2:219).

Taoism

"The five colors blind the eye; running and chasing mislead the heart" (Tao Te Ching, 12): these attractions distract from what is essential.

Our relationship with reality

Reality reaches us in two ways. The first is immense: an asteroid could one day remind Earth that it is suspended in the sky. Faced with this possibility, the sky ceases to be a backdrop; it becomes a vision—that of a fragile world, traversed by time.

The second is minuscule and commonplace. Wine, drugs, all the temptations that have persisted through the ages promise a happiness that vanishes as soon as it appears. The body, in a hurry, seeks refuge, and finds it in the form of fleeting pleasures, like lighting a lamp to avoid looking at the night.

These two faces, however, share a common root: reality overwhelms us, and we don't always dare to look it in the face. The tragedy of the sky and the tragedy of appetite both address the same question: what do we do with what is fleeting?

So why is it so rare to meet someone who is thriving? Perhaps because thriving isn't something you can force; it's something you let ripen. There are many obstacles: haste, noise, fear, habit. But each one can become a gateway. The fleeting moment, observed attentively, ceases to be an escape; the imagined catastrophe, met with calm, ceases to be a threat and becomes a lesson in humility.

Perhaps fulfillment begins there: in the quiet presence to what is, great or small, which comes and goes, and which, for a moment, makes us be.