Despite the bright, sunny, and hot day at the Stoa, I wish to discuss darker things. I say dark only because that is how some see these topics, though I do not necessarily.
Humans have strove to have better lives ever since we realized we didn't like wearing skins (the bears tended to argue with them about how they were obtained) and eating bugs. Just as we strive to have a 30' HD TV screen instead of the out-dated 25' screen. It is just in our nature.
We bring order to a chaotic and entropic universe. We are an anomaly, despite being, I suspect, common in the Universe (life, that is). Since the universe cooled and expanded, entropy has been steadily breaking things down. Systems get more chaotic and energy spreads out. It is just physics. Gravity, which may be a force originating outside our universe (look up M-theory and gravity), makes things clump up and form galaxies, stars, and ultimately, humans. Despite these forces of order, entropy will always win in the end.
Humans die. Building decay and fall in on themselves. The very mountains themselves are worn away by nothing more than the wind and the rain.
The Egyptians had a vibrant and colorful culture. They built monuments to the gods and to themselves that we can still see today. Those monuments are pitted and worn and are but baked shadows of their former glory. The builders and occupants of those structures are but desiccated jerky wrapped in cloth that tend to fall to dust if not handled with care.
Rome was the center of the universe for the civilized Western culture, yet there came a time when people scrambled in the ruins for food and shelter. They stared at the huge structures around them and wondered at the people who could have built them, perhaps knowing that those people were once themselves.
Taking the long view on these things makes one wonder at the futility of it all. A modern human, without ObamaCare, has about 50 good years to make a difference in the world. We strive for wealth, comfort, and possibly, a legacy. Legacies fade and become legends which become myth. In the end, even that fades. Yet while we are here, we will kill others to secure that legacy. Makes you think.
Despite my desire to live forever, I know that is not possible given current technology. When I really think about it, I think that mortality may be God's greatest gift to us. Without death, we can not truly APPRECIATE life. Without the risk of death, there can be no X-Games. Without death, the world will be packed with Caesars, Napoleons, Hitlers, and Stalins all vying for control. It would be full of Bachs and Beethovens scratching their heads at the changing tastes in music. Monsters would live among us with no hope that death will take them from us and lock them forever behind the barriers of history. The creative will commit suicide in time knowing that they can create no more of interest. Death allows for growth, ambition, and even joy. Odd that.
For whatever reasons, we are driven to better ourselves, our families, and our people. Intellectually we know that in the end it will be futile. We live in the moment. We must, for moments are all that we are given. Take joy in what you do, take joy in what you are. Stare at a flower and marvel at its geometric complexity and think about the good smell later.
Nothing will stop the Universes' decline to entropy, though between gravity and life, we can delay the inevitable and bring some order to the chaos. In the end, all may be dust, but for now, as the Romans once said, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Got to love them.
Live well.
--Zavost
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