Mike Dust to Dust @ 11:29 on Saturday, July 28, 2012 Warning, this is a deep thought post. I'm not high I swear. I consider myself an Atheist, but I wanted to express the romance in death and life. How I cope with mortality. So I'm going to type this monstrosity up. How often do you think about your mortality? Most people probably don't give it too much thought. People my age are too busy living their lives to stop and think about what we are. People my age are starting families, working on their career, or struggling to just stay alive. So there's no time to think about what makes that all matter. Why are you struggling to stay alive? The question starts out that way, but you'll end up asking yourself a different question. What are we really? I'm not talking about being religious. I'm talking about what we have been since the beginning of time. What we will be until the end of time. Every molecule on this planet can be traced back to the crucibles of stars. When stars die, elements are created. When stars nova, heavier elements are created. As the generation of stars progress more heavier complicated elements are created. Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon, and Oxygen dominate the universe. Sound familiar? We are made of the most basic elements. From those 4 elements we can basically make most of what we need to be alive. Water for example. Stars are probably the closest things to Gods that we are able to conceive. What are you? Are you several living cells working together? Are you your consciousness? Or are you simply a jumble of molecules? If living cells and consciousness are a lucky consequence of these molecules that make us up. It's fair to say we are in fact molecules despite what defines us as a individual. So what does that mean? That means you are star debris, or star dust. That means you have been around a very long time. Almost since the beginning of time itself. You've changed, evolved, and came to be what you are today. You will exist for a short time conceiving this universe the best way you can before you return to your molecular existence. My ancestors are still on this planet scattered about, unconscious, inanimate, yet existing. They are still there physically. Their human characteristics are gone, but human characteristics including everything we hold dear in life is still a human invention. When you are done with life, none of that will matter to you anymore. So we are all just dust. You, me, your mom, your dog, your car, your cell phone, this planet.. all star dust. It's not as depressing as it sounds. The dust is part of the universe, along with every other force that supports our consciousness. Gravity, strong force, weak force, electromagnetic forces, and every other yet to be known force. It all plays a role in supporting our ability to conceive. You aren't alone, you are part of the universe. The universe is expanding, unfolding. You are as Carl Sagan puts it, “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” … If not for a brief moment on a cosmological time scale. That's what makes my mortality romantic. Though, I wouldn't mind an extra 1000 years of life. New Comment | Return to Blog Philip jVBiILSYEI @ 06:46 on Thursday, August 09, 2012 I don't even know what to say, this made things so much esiaer! New Comment | Return to Blog Important Read: You must enter your NAME, SUBJECT along with the Comment Body to properly submit a comment. Thank You.