Well it's not that when I drink coffee in the morning I think about supernovas, or that I dislike wealth, or money, or material things per se. I used to love going into Victoria's secret stores for example and checking out all the fragrances - it was an experience like in a Salvador Dali world with lingerie.
I love the small pleasures but they have become a part of a really large large world.
I like physics and astronomy because they keep me grounded in a reality that's much larger than the small world we live on. I don't want to be a worm with my nose down in the dirt. I want to be a pair of eyes fixed on the stars.
I grew up with the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov, I recently even re-listened to all seven Foundation series, although I have to say that some of the, well, gender issues were a little bit dated.
But I dream of the day when our descendants are going to cover the stars the way we just hop between the continents today, and they're going to think nothing of passing by a planet or a supernova.
But in order for this day to come we need to utilize the resources of our civilization and all human beings, the greatest resource of our planet. Unfortunately a lot of kids grow up in terror and darkness, just the way I grew up, if it wasn't for a little computer lab to give me an extensive and free time with computers so I could realize my potential... I would have been stuck cooking somewhere, sorry but that's the reality for a lot of creatures on this Earth. If you notice many Hollywood movies immediately show a female person, a female human with an apron doing dishes near a sink usually in the kitchen.
So we have to change the reality for huge segments of humanity - first and most importantly is kids who are currently stuck and unable to contribute and grow because of their environment, and of course freeing the brains of women to be used and work for the betterment of humanity.
Knowing of physics and astronomy grows my world to include the entire universe, and its entire lifespan, so I could measure my little life here against the entire reality of our world. When I get up in the morning I want to know that everything I do in the world is part of a very very large universe, so I don't want to worry about the little things. I want to worry about the little things very little.
I want my work not to be just objects but to answer the biggest questions as to what is it like to be a human being, what is a beautiful thing that a human being can do in their day, and breaking down as many walls and barriers without actually demolishing anything.
So we live in a world with a moon and many stars, and a can of paint is just a single wavelength of light entering our brains. Why do we like color?
I don't know but I'd like to give it to you freely.