It's been so long since I've written much of anything. I don't really know why I chose now to write, but something just stirred the embers, and a little flicker of creativity flared up.
I want to talk a little bit about beauty. what's the most beautiful thing you can imagine? I want you close your eyes and see if you can see what I see. (i know, you can't read with you eyes closed, just bear with me.) Imagine a single atom. any atom you want. I'm partial to carbon, myself. now, that one atom is part of a molecule. that molecule is one of a trillion trillion molecules inside a single cell. that single cell could be a neuron in the human brain. that one cell could be the connection responsible for a child seeing wonder in a butterfly, or an artist painting his masterpiece. that one cell is one of trillions in the body of a person. any person. maybe your loved one, maybe someone you'll never ever meet. that one person is one of over 108 billion people to have ever lived on this planet. a planet that circles a star. that one star is one of billions in this galaxy, which in turn is one of an infinite number of galaxies, some so far away that, in the entirety of time, the light from them has YET to reach our eyes. This is how minuscule we are. If we stop here, it's such a terrible thought. that the whole of human existence is insignificant.
But we can't stop here, we're just getting started.
Remember that atom? Well that atom was forged in the heart of a star so long ago that our minds can't comprehend the magnitude of the time since it's birth. That star was formed out of the dust of a thousand stars before it, and so on back until the beginning of the very universe itself. The atoms in your body are from every corner of the universe, the culmination of everything the universe has ever been, up to now. We are made of star stuff.
Remember that cell? That cell could be a cell from a woman named Henrietta Lacks. She was born in the 1920's, and eventually died of cancer. But a sample of that cancer has been living for over 60 years, and has paved the way for some of the greatest scientific advances in human history: treatment for cancer, for AIDS, and genetic disorders. We can live for eons.
Remember that one person? Maybe that person was the one who first sang a song, who first drew on the wall of a cave. The first person to laugh, to cry, to tell a joke or write a poem. maybe that person isn't born yet, and will someday find a whole new way to bring joy into the world, or maybe to another world. Our potential is infinite.
Someday, millions or billions of years from now and long after we're gone, Earth as we know it will end. Our sun will die, compress upon itself and explode with a force we can't even begin to fathom. Our solar system will be torn apart on an atomic level, and everything we've ever been, everything we could ever hope to be will be reduced to atoms.
Remember that atom?
That single, beautiful atom?
It feels good to write again. Thanks for planting the seed, Spazzy.
Loading comments...