In our world, events go by and never return, they end up in a huge receptacle called The Past. Most of us desperately try to cling onto The Past by taking pictures, shooting videos, writing in diaries. All to save and archive memories. In the end however, most everyday stuff will get lost and inevitably be forgotten. For some, yours truly included, that’s difficult to accept. Being Greg McRetro, I find myself constantly searching for ways to deal with this crap.
We all will get lost in oblivion at one point or another. Yeah, I hear you think, but what about Albert Einstein? What about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? For most people, those are just names, linked to the stuff the folks behind those names did. Einstein equals scientific e-mc-bla. Mozart equals classical la-di-da. Only a few wonder about the person behind the name or the music or the formula. What were they really like? How did they like their coffee? What were their obsessions and passions?
More like in the now, we try very hard to be seen by others, not to be forgotten. Most of us try to impress others all the time, just to get recognized as a great person whose being here matters. Well, this probably has been said innumerable times, but I’ll mention it again, also to remind myself: don’t waste your time thinking about what other people think is great. In the end, others most likely won’t care whether you do what they think is great, since you can’t be sincere about something that doesn’t fit you. They might even think it isn’t that great after all. Or they won’t be around to think anything.
In the end, nobody will be around. Sob sob. Those who are interested in astronomy will be vividly aware of the fact that our Sun will burn out some day. That doesn’t mean it will get colder. Due to the way it burns its fuel, it will get hotter first. Hot enough to boil Earths water and turn its surface into hell. By that time (3.5 billion years from now) we probably have found a way to travel to another solar system, but eventually the center of that system will die too. Same goes for all other suns.
So let’s deal with that existencial but terribly demoralizing question: what’s the point? What’s the point when ultimately everything fades to black? Well, obviously, there isn’t any. Just make sure you feel great, use your time here to find out what it is that makes you feel even more great and pursue your findings. Share those with people who feel great about the same things. Together, you’ll feel even better.
End of story? Pretty much so. Stop the fight. Let it all go. Just enjoy yourself with friends and family.
