>or can we assume some measure of stewardship....as one more piece
to the evolutionary puzzle.>

Well said.  Most of us know that we are the stewards of our future.  We may
do better to keep our attention on the signposts of change in the realm of
our work, our families and our friends, than get intoxicated with the wonder
of the angles of the heavens (or get lost in scientific data).   The game,
after all, is to remember that we are all the unique faces of one continuum.

John