This kind of sad romantization of physical phenomena is weird to me.

I think romanticizing physical phenomena can be a really great tool to create a narrative and get people interested in the subject, or can just be a cool talking point about physics.

This example is pointless and kinda sad

If a photon from the sun misses the earth it will likely travel for billions of years into the void, most of them probably absorbed by random space dust. So hitting earth or hitting a human could be considered cool depending how you sell the narrative.

It's possible to tell many different narratives. I just dislike the sad ones. There are many more cool ones

If we're anthropomorphizing photons, lets imagine how it experienced time. Most of those 93 million miles was instantaneous. Then for the the tiniest fraction of a second you're screaming through thickening atmosphere before hitting someone and making a cone in their eye dance around like one of those fan powered air dancers at a used car lot. Maybe you even bounced off one those fan powered air dancers at a used car lot.

More than 2 meters from my desk lamp

Actually we are part of the ground. We are the planet earth, we just move strangely

This weekend a whole lot of sunlight had the opportunity of beating me about the face, neck, and arms. I'm not embarrassed, really, but I am a bit red in the face about it

Photons at their core don't rally experience time because they are traveling like lighing fast.

Also they prob bounce around the sun (trapped by magnetic fields) for longer than they travel to Earth.

Also 2, sometimes starlight hits my eyes. Those poor very well traveled photons. Some might be even a bit red, but I doubt I've actually detected those.

From the light's point of view, that distance should get reduced to zero due to length contraction anyway if I'm remembering correctly?

The light is always trying to kill me anyway, so I use SPF 60 stuff, clothing, and various other ways of blocking it so it's stopped before it even reaches my actual skin.

You stop the light from reaching the ground, I stop the light from reaching me. We are not the same.

If I were a photon I'd probably be more interested in hitting a human than the ground

I saved it from the disappointment of being obstructed by Earth. Anyway, it's not like it wasted any time on the journey.

The light from other stars travelled much farther until you blocked it with your retinas. Sun needs to grow some thicker skin.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

To a handful of photons, I am a GOD.