When a drop of water evaporates you don’t hear any moaning. In my backyard yellow daisies flaunt their beauty. When their petals drop off, turn brown and shrivel up I don’t hear any complaints.
What’s with us humans? We get a few pains in our joints, a little flab around the belly and gray hair and we are ready for a casket.
We are part of this universe. Our fate is no different than that of the snow that melts or the dried leaves on our front lawn.
Humans, that’s the way it is. Get used to it.
I was born in an exploding star. A few seconds after the Big Bang I took off. Me and my buddies, trillions of us are on the journey of a lifetime.
You won’t believe what I’ve seen. I’ve zipped through stony meteorites and the icy tails of comets. I oohed and aahed with the others as we shot through planetary rings and thick, hot magma.
Planet Earth was a blip on our epic trip. As I moved through your planet it was nice to see all the fleshy things crawling about playing with their toys.
But that was long ago. We are at the beginning the most mind-blowing trip ever. Unfortunately the edge of the universe has a head start on us and unless something changes we will never catch up. We will never get to see what is beyond the edge.
Whatever is there I bet it is even more fantastic. Who knows there might be a wild new universe on the other side? Maybe our universe is just rolling out the carpet for the entrance of an even cooler one.
I just had a thought. What if beyond the edge of our universe there are other universes that are expanding towards us? What if there are zillions of neutrinos from those other universes racing in our direction?
I’m going to get ready. I’m going to have to be super fast if I want to say hello to my neutrino buddies as they zoom by on their way to who knows where.
“Here comes another one,” he said. “They heard the engine roar as the driver revved the engine. As the vehicle reached the mid-point of the quiet leafy street the engine noise climbed to a scream. “It sounds like one of the jet engines at JFK airport,” she said.
“Are you ready?” he said. “Yes, all systems go,” she said. They flipped the switch on the shiny metal cube in front of them.
Inside the speeding vehicle a distracted man in a suit named Joey continued sending a text. He didn’t even bother to look at the road. He glanced at the green traffic light far in the distance. “I gotta make the light,” Joey said to himself.
He pressed the accelerator down as far as it would go. “Faster, damnit, faster,” he said to himself.
Suddenly he realized something strange had happened. He sat in the front row of a classroom. “I can barely fit into this desk. It’s for a little kid,” he said. He turned and saw that all the desks in the room had adults squeezed into them. He reached for his cell phone but couldn’t find it. He noticed other people in the room were actually swiping and clicking the air reflexively. “Someone must have taken their cell phones too,” he thought.
He turned to the front of the room. Everyone fidgeted in their chairs. A gigantic policeman in a bright blue uniform entered the room. A female officer followed him. “They must be eight feet tall,” Joey thought to himself.
“You are the lucky ones,” the male officer said. His voice boomed through the room. “If good citizens didn’t stop you, you would be murderers by now,” the giant policeman said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe I sent a text or two,” he said. “You! Joseph,” the female policeman said. “You were going 85 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone. You had your eyes glued to your phone sending a text about nothing. You never saw the family. A pregnant women with three small children was about to cross the road in front of your speeding vehicle. You do not know how lucky you are to have a second chance,” the giant female policewoman said.
The slide show started and every person at every desk had their eyes glued to the screen. Over and over the slides repeated:
“Be patient.”
“Drive slowly under the speed limit.”
“Do not text and drive.”
The slides repeated over and over. Joey’s eyes glazed over. “When is it going to stop? This is torture,” Joey said.
“It will stop when you learn to respect your fellow human beings Joseph,” the giant policewoman said.
“Let’s get moving,” Orb said. “Sure, where do you want them?” Scept said. “Over North America, especially the East coast,” Orb said. “Again?” Scept said in a whiny voice. “They always get all the good stuff.” “Scept, you know as well as I do that they’ve been having a lot of problems this month,” Scept grumbled as he herded a flock of cirri. “Don’t forget the fronts,” Orb said. Scept nudged the cold front in the specified direction and sat back. “I still don’t think it’s fair,” Scept said. “That’s why I’m in charge and you are just pushing condensation,” Orb said.
It’s cozy in my house. I sit at the bottom of a spiral. The inside is nice and smooth. I’ve done the outside in alternating brown, yellow and cream. I have to admit it looks snazzy. I get a lot of attention, especially from gardeners. When they see me there are a lot of “oohs and ahs”. Sometimes I get a “yuck” or two.
What happens next varies. The nice ones pick me up, house and all, and set me down somewhere pleasant, like in the park. Most of the time I get tossed and I’ll admit the landings can be jarring. Fortunately I fit quite snugly in my house and I can ride out the initial impact and subsequent bounces and rolls.
The room glittered with crystal. At each place three different wine glasses stood in a row. Large plates, medium size plates and small plates competed for space with dishes, bowls and napkins.
The guests tittered at the excess. They waited for the special guest to arrive. I made a determined effort to corral a bread basket. I pulled out a warm roll and then I turned my attention to butter. I love salty butter on bread. It’s one of my weaknesses. I spied a small dish with golden pats, just waiting to be taken. Looking both ways to make sure I was not being observed I speared at least five of the canary yellow squares of goodness.
I relaxed now that I had my butter. That’s all I needed to make it through the night.
The audience whispered to each other as they waited. The Sun beat down hard on their backs. All sat on dirt according to custom.
The drumming started. It synchronized the heartbeats of the crowd. They leaned forward peering into the distance. Far off a tiny dust cloud appeared. It moved in their direction. Sighs of relief and soft murmurs accompanied laughs and smiles.
Soon all could see the column of men. They wore traditional dress. Soft kudu pelts swished against muscular legs. Bright red, blue and yellow beads glittered around sinewy throats. Each man held a polished wooden knobkerry.
They arrived. The drummer began to weave intricate rhythms into the steady beat and then he hit the drum a ferocious blow. The dance started.
Legs kicked impossibly high and then returned to stamp the dusty earth. The ground shook and the people watched in awe.
Bright white streaked across the sky. Everyone’s eyes followed the path. “It is time,” the old man said. He placed the bones in the fire pit on top of the red hot coals. Cracks formed in the bones. They looked like crazed spider webs. The old man examined the strange patterns. He stood and turned to the crowd.
“We will go south,” the old man said.
The thick sheets of ice approached the mounds of granite. Thousands of rocks churned in the ice. The cacophony would have deafened any living thing. Screeches and shrieks filled the air as long furrows and trenches were gouged in the salt and pepper surface. It was as if a gigantic cat was dragging its claws over a huge blackboard. The inexorable pull rent the bedrock of the planet.