On Times and Changes

Ender

I can’t quite remember when I first did get a glimpse of the flow of time. Small children, especially with their natural value of what’s important, usually ignore the passing years and growing age unconsciously. But now, when I’m considering why and when did I gain the awareness of passing time, I kind of figure, it is because of the insignificance of our short lives compared to the history of the universe that we would ignore it. And, more importantly, whether delving into the untouchable history of the universe, or mentioning a small spark within a 0.1 of a second, life is more precious and too romantic to just leave anything undiscovered.

Changes and differences might appear along with the rolling wheel of time. Every second, there is an uncountable number of particles decaying into countless more less energized ones, thousands of infants being birthed with thousands of people dying due to senility, disease, accidents, etc. I can imagine millions of suns exploding in a flash, billions of stars hovering over the sky above my pen. I have also changed a lot. I can construct more and more complex essays with deeper thoughts since I came into SID and I have become more mature since attending the first day of school. People are constantly changing, as so is the world. Time, changes, differences, eternity, universe – these are all somehow linked together by the same inexplicability of the connection that ties between them — the permanent rule of “constant” change which gives to everything a sense of unpredictability and insignificance. Standing in the never-endingly flowing river of time, we are all grains of sand.

That’s when I started to think of the value of all these things. Why would we humans still live on the earth even though we are so insignificant to the planet, to the solar system and to the universe? What’s the meaning of life? And what does nature want to tell us through our presence? These questions do not have accurate answers and never will. But for now, I can give my opinion confidently: they are all about awareness. It is because of our free mind, our ability to think, to touch, to feel, to analyze, to get frustrated sometimes, and to care about being alive that makes us so unique, so unique as to be creatures unparalleled on the face of the earth……

[To be continued]