Do you remember when you were a kid, and you’d look up at the stars, probably during the summer, when school was the last thing on your mind and you were left to educate yourself through innocent moments of observation, when you could almost feel the explosions firing off in your brain? You’d look up into the blackness with the white specks, millions of them, flashes, stars, actual things, and you’d come to terms, briefly, with who you are and where you are, and it was the most relaxing sensation. Yes, yes that’s right, there’s a country and there’s a world, and there’s the solar system and there’s all those stars, look at ‘em, wow.
Then, you remembered.
Oh yes, do we remember.
There might be something out there.
There might be a designer.
There might be, somewhere beyond those stars, a heaven. Everyone dies, yes, but you withstand it, float into the clouds and continue on. And of course you are a good person, so you will go to heaven. You’ve certainly never done anything to warrant an eternal sentence in a hell. Either way, you will still have this mysterious consciousness, this light in your mind. You will be aware.
You will live and live and live and live and live and live.
Then you’d shift your eyes to another part of the stars, a new cluster challenging you to analyze its features. You allow your curiosity to stretch its legs.
What if there is nothing after?
What if it just…
Ends.
What if there is no reaction after death? Just as soon as your body turns off, your heart, your brain, as soon as the moment of death happens, the nanosecond it occurs, just…
Poof.
Click.
Nothing.
The stars.
Look up at the stars.
We are the only species that knows its own tragic fate. Every animal knows it must survive, but we are the only one that knows the stakes. We are gifted with the intelligence of mortality, yet we ignore it, choosing instead to live as clueless as the other animals.
The stars, my goodness.
Look up at the stars.
Where are we headed? Humanity. Where are we going? We’re the smartest animal there is. Remarkably smart, when you’re in the mood to think about it. We know something the other animals don’t know. It doesn’t feel good to think about, of course. It stirs a lonely feeling inside us, as chilling a moment as you ever experience. There’s a tragic end to all of this, and there is no stopping it.
Think of the funeral of the someone who meant the most to you. Think of that face in the coffin. Think of how you felt. Remember what you cried over and what you feared: the awareness was gone. That person’s existence disappeared, just as it will for all of us.
It ends.
It’s going to end.
You’re going to try to forget it. You’re going to try to ignore that in one snapshot of time this – everything – ends. Click.
You’re trying to forget it now. I will forget it. We will ignore this horrifying truth. Because if you think about it too much, it doesn’t feel good. You’ve never felt more alone than when you’ve thought about your own death – when you recount the wave of reaction that’s going to take place afterward, the reaction for which you will take no part.
Remember the stars.
Look up at the stars.
Bathe in that chilling truth as it courses through your brain. What if you always felt like that?
You’re going to die.
What happens when the truth is digested?
You’re going to die.
What if just like the other animals, when it’s over, that’s it? Click.
You’re going to die.
You don’t want to die.
You’re going to die.
You’re scared.
You’re going to die.
You are aware.
The stars.
Look up at the stars.
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