Entry 14: The Signs of Life

"Have you ever looked up at the sky and wondered about how far away, and yet so close the stars look?

Have you ever thought about the possibility that at that very same moment, someone else, on another star altogether, might be looking at your planet, as a speck in the night sky, and wonder the same?
It's incredible. I think it's always important to remember how delicate we are and how small we are in the grand scheme of things, because it really puts everything in perspective....

All your scars are signs of life. Each time you fall, you must remember that you are alive, you are here and you are capable of so much. Every time you listen to music which makes you dance, every time you watch a movie which makes you laugh, or read a book  that makes you cry, and every time you look up to the sky, you must remember that you are alive. Every breath you take, and every heartbeat; you are alive, and the world is full of wonderful strangeness.

And all of it can come crashing down, all in the blink of an eye. An asteroid could destroy everything and everyone. What can stop it, honestly? All that protects you from here and the Great Beyond is a blanket of air. That’s it. 

It doesn’t have to be an asteroid. You could slip on a banana peel and accidentally brake your skull, it could be a car crash or a pebble falling from an aircraft (far-fetched? Maybe). You could die from a heart-attack or a heat stroke or by just standing in the sun for too long on the planet Gormundy. And all of this is just a few of the billions of ways you could possible off yourself.

I’m not trying to scare you. All I’m saying is that you are here, you are solid, you are alive… but you are fragile and weak and no matter how hard you try, you are here only for a fleeting moment of time.

So live.

Go out there, and live.

Make your fragile life count, for yourself.

This moment, and your time here, no matter how fleeting for the Universe, is your entire lifetime. Live for yourself, and don’t waste it on someone else’s terms. Stop waiting for people and things and the ‘right time.’ Because you are fragile, and you are not forever, but you are here now and that’s all that matters. The world is big, and strange, and terrible, and promising, and it's all yours."

That's an excerpt from 'Why I Like to Travel,' written by one of my favourite authors (and the person who got me started into aiming for the stars, literally) from back home, Rula Tyvahna, the Thirty-Third. Bless her.

I think it's wonderful how Earthlings share similar sources of inspiration. I think it is primarily the realization that we're not going to be here forever that really gets people going, and that really sets people into wanting to achieve greatness (because they would like to outlive everyone and everything) and also sets people into slowing down and just observing. The difference between these two people also shows that, essentially, there are two ways people can react to things. The active way, and the passive way. Both are destined for greatness, and both are destined for doom.