Life, death, the universe, and the sadness of it all
We don’t really know what we as humans are. Strictly biologically speaking, we are animals with consciousness. But nobody has been able to fully understand nor explain what consciousness truly is. A set of electrical impulses? A collection of memories and experiences? Many even believe in the idea of a supernatural soul. One thing is almost certain. We’re an accident. A quintillion to one chance of an accident extremely unlikely to ever happen again. Think about it. The universe itself in general is made of particles. Well, not really. I’m skipping the most important aspect of the universe and that is nothing. Infinite, yet expanding nothingness. And in that nothingness that is getting emptier each second there are conglomerations of particles. On the cosmic scale, they are rather insignificant and tiny. To us, they can be unimaginably massive and vast. Stars, planets, nebulas, black holes, various rocks, and everything in between. Stars come into existence from tightly packed dust due to gravity, and so do planets and other celestial bodies. Eventually, some of those die, explode, cease to exist, and transform into different objects. On one unbearably insignificant and near invisible little planet, something incredibly unique happened a few billion years ago. Nobody really knows how it exactly happened and what the cause was, but some of those particles that create the stars and planets came together in a perfectly specific way that has caused that particular clump of atoms to live. To react to its environment and reproduce itself. With a few massive extinctions and an unimaginable amount of pure luck, we get to today where one of those living organisms thrives so much, that it dominates the entire planet. Billions of humans live, think, create, dream, hope, love, adore, fear, and ponder the reason for it all. When you think about it we are the universe looking back at itself in awe. We haven’t been here for long and nobody can for certain tell whether or not we’re here to stay. This is an incredible opportunity to be able to exist and to experience existing to the fullest.
There is one thing you as an individual have to realise. Everyone eventually dies. Every single living human being living before us has done so. On top of that, everyone is eventually forgotten. That is simply inevitable. It does not matter how well-known you are, how famous you are, or what have you done to “immortalise” yourself in the history books because those too will eventually disintegrate. Not immediately no, but let’s say 10 000 years, or let’s add two zeroes. a million years. It’s like you never existed. Every memory you have, every experience you have had in the past and will have from today, every life you have affected by your actions or mere presence, every aspiration, dream, emotion, material possession. Gone. It is not just incredibly important to fully embrace your existence in the moment but to savour it and enjoy it while you can. You’ve been dead for over thirteen billion years and you’re going to be dead for infinitely longer than that. It’s living you’re not used to. Make the most of it because if there is one thing certain life is painfully fragile. Your entire existence can be over in an instant and you wouldn’t even know it. Love your loved ones, hug your family, spend time with your children, visit your parents, be kind to everyone, and be a good person at heart.
I’ve had this blog post in my drafts for a while now. Mostly inspired by many instances of humans being the absolute worst to each other in multiple ongoing wars around the globe today. As I’ve said before, human life is an incredibly rare, unique, and beautiful accident that we should by all means cherish and enjoy. Seeing so many people doing their utmost to end the lives of others, sending soldiers to die on the frontlines for being from a group across an imaginary line on a tiny insignificant rock in the vast universe simply seems not just baffling but downright evil, idiotic, and the most pointless thing to do. And now seeing how many beautiful lives can be so needlessly extinguished by a single deranged monster who wanted to “bring as much pain as possible” in a city I can happily call my home has made me finish this piece and publish it. Prague is hurting today, The Czech Republic is hurting today, the whole world is constantly hurting and the only ones responsible are our fellow humans who choose to gamble with something as fragile as human consciousness. So many unnecessary deaths in Prague yesterday, or in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Armenia, and sadly many more places.
The sad thing is that this is almost certainly never going to change. Maybe consciousness was an evolutionary error after all? I still do not think so. It gave us empathy, creativity, art, music, stories, discoveries… There’s so much to still be positive about.
Below are images from today’s memorial at Charles University one day after the horrible attack. Many hearts were broken. The somber, sad, and visibly painful evening brought hundreds and thousands together to remember the ones whose lives were needlessly extinguished. It was a quiet event with very few and faint voices. Many cried, many stood in disbelief, and all of us wanted it to just be a bad dream. The silence was cut only by the rain hissing upon hitting the candle flames. I truly hope Prague never has to experience anything like this ever again. Or anyone for that matter.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to hug my little daughter extra tight. Right now that is all that matters to my universe of which she is the centre.
