“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.” ~ Douglas Adams
You got to do more than just take up space. The void of space is in fact so vast it dwarfs any human enterprise and even our entire existence at all.
So what do you think is it possible to mean anything? Is it possible to be something more than another faceless space man trying to take up as much space as possible in an indifferent cosmos?
The urge to mean something amid the incomprehensible magnitude of emptiness is daunting, but let me make a bold claim: it is fundamentally impossible from the viewpoint of the void for you to mean anything.
Now think about it for a minute. Ty to resist running to your concept of god or some other spiritual manifestation of an all powerful, all encompassing being to give you the meaning you cannot find innately within yourself in your own skin.
I don’t want to offend any believers in absolutely whatever you want to believe in, but I want you if you could, to suspend your knee jerk reaction and continue down this rabbit hole of thought with me for a sec.
So, we’ve accepted that we don’t mean anything and from the standpoint of the universe you are just another faceless spaceman drifting in the void.
Why am I here? What is my purpose? Does everything I do and everything I am have any value whatsoever?
If there is no greater meaning, at first blush you might conclude, I am meaningless, but it isn’t that simple. The human body is composed cells which are composed of atoms. Maybe you remember from a chemistry class way back when that an atom is mostly empty space.
That’s right, you literally are the void! It is thus impossible to take up space because you are the space you seek to occupy innately by existing and by whatever magnitude of your human labors. I am feeling kind of cynical at the moment and I am starting to wonder maybe the only meaning in this world is the meaning we create for ourselves.
I don’t have all the answers; not by a long shot. All I can impress upon you from all of this is to implore you to go find that meaning and seek it within yourself, in your own heart. If you can find that meaning and that purpose you can live a fulfilled life.
As I said, it’s just not enough to take up space so stew for a bit, and consider that it maybe time to embrace the void.
Related Space Sketches and Posts:
“Space man needs to do some serious moon walking…….
”
I wonder, when we find life on another planet, if it will resemble what we know as life today.
@mysticdave: Haha, that was right on the money!
@McLaughlin: Yeah, I really don’t have a concept of how likely humanoid life is, but it is cool to wonder.