BLOG: The Depth of Existence

Hello friends! Its the weekend, money starts baby and we gonna walk on! (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD soundtrack reference. Goddamn is that a good soundtrack and movie!) I got some great plans this weekend. My best friend since high school is coming down to hang with me for the next two days and we are going together on Sunday to see a band live that he turned me on to, and it changed my world. A prog rock metal band called DREAM THEATER. But more on that in a future blog.

Right now, I want to ease your mind a bit from the bullshit the world is heaping at us to contemplate the ethical structure of the universe. You know, easy reading… but hey, take the ride with me! It might help you. Let’s try it:

Life has been stressful and crazy as of late. Seems like every day there is some new bullshit to read and deal with. I’m not just talking about here in America, where there is a heap of BS going on… but all over the world people are being bombed out of existence. Starving to death. Their way of life just decimated. (Kinda makes our problems here in the states seem like cakewalk by comparison, doesn’t it?) We are all so busy pointing fingers, going to the top shelf with our comparisons and outrage. We are killing free speech and assassinating each other. Sometimes its all too much to bear. We feel alone in a world that is just using us and doesn’t seem to give a shit about us at all. Sometimes it all feels so hopeless.

Some would seek refuge in things like religion. The hope of happiness beyond all of this. For me being an atheist, I don’t get that luxury. (I’m fine with that, BTW) I seek refuge in things like creating. Enjoying. Dissecting. Reading. Watching. Taking a walk and breathing in the good around me as I can. Sitting down to listen to a favorite album, or enjoying a new one. Sipping some coffee in the morning and writing a blog to those who follow me and take a moment to hear about my world. Its a beautiful life and I thank you for giving it to me.

Here’s where I am at… and I hope that maybe it can give you something to hold onto as you drift through the muck of the day to day. Contemplate the universe…

Our galaxy is just one of billions in this ever expanding universe. One. We are a successful virus with shoes, hanging onto a ball of mud suspended in an endless nothing. So small by comparison with the larger picture of existence. Consider the randomness that allowed you breathe in air and read this sentence just now. Stardust combined to eventually create you. Cells, proteins, atoms gave birth to life, evolution and experience. It so randomly came to be that people met and created more life and your parents created you. Perhaps you are even lucky enough to create life yourself and it will live on well after you are gone. When we are gone, we return to stardust. Everything you see… EVERYTHING… will one day be gone. Like it was never there. Gone. The Earth itself will end. All memory of us being here will end. And the universe will keep chugging along, not caring. Benign by nature. Creating something new out of the same stardust that made us… and we will be a part of that.

Kinda crazy when you sit and contemplate it, right? Its hard to even fathom its truth, but it is. It is what it is. And its beyond us. It always has been.

Now, consider that out of the randomness, you somehow came along. You achieved consciousness. And you are here for a very short time. 60-80 years, give or take a decade or two. Maybe less, hopefully more. But you will end. Everything ends. And we will never know the ending to the story. Will humanity as a thing ever get it together? What will happen once the Earth is no more? What else is out there? We will never know. Ever. At all. Ever.

Honestly, I don’t find that sad. I used to. But I cannot control that. Its something you just accept as you get older and start to look back. Regrets? We all have them. But we did the best we could with what we had at the time. And you learned lessons. Now you are here at this time, fighting for what is “right” and to be heard. To be seen. To be appreciated. And that fight is a worthy one. We all just want a good and peaceful world around us. Roof over our head, food on the table, knowledge to gain and safety. At base, we the successful virus look out for each other. Appreciate each other. Take care of each other. We might squabble over some differences and get angry at things, but at base, we do what we can with what we got. The bigger picture can get lost in the hum drum of the day to day.

Every day comes to us clean. We wake up and get a new one. The ride we are on is still going. And truly… it is just a ride.

On this ride, we got to be at the same moment in history as some of the greatest things mankind as a thing has ever accomplished and the most amazing people who created things that become a part of the great story that is us. Art. Music. Writing. Construction. Seriously, think about that. We get to live at the same time as The Beatles, Johannes Brahms, William Shakespere, Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, David Bowie… I mean, Anyone you can think of whose art or work has impacted you in some way. The list is endless. The people have came and gone but their works remain. For a while anyway. And you’re here for it. And if you are lucky and so inclined you can add to that list. Don’t worry about achieving stardom or success at it. Just do the thing and give back. You get to. You are a part of a long line of stardust that is here for a while, does things and will one day be gone.

It is after considering the deepness of those truths of existence that seems to shrink all the problems of the world. Can’t you feel that? Suddenly the big problems seem like mere potholes to avoid. Anthills to squash. No problem is beyond us. We can fight for what we believe in and hope that collectively we can right the ship to achieve the greatness that humankind is capable of doing and being. The evils of the world will end someday. It is inevitable.

And again, basically, we did the best with what we had.

So my friends: Don’t despair. Fight for what is right. And when the fight feels like too much, step away and regroup. Take in some art (whatever form that is for you) and maybe MAKE ART (again, whatever form that is for you). Do it without any fear of failure or lust for success. Enjoy your consciousness. Enjoy your existence and everything around you as you can. Let the arseholes get loud and eventually fade, because they will. Truth, hope, love and light ALWAYS prevail. Always.

Remember, it is never hopeless. Shrink the problems. Choke down the bad days until they are nothing. This is your life. Its limited. Go live it. Do what good you can and shine as bright as you can. So that when the long trek is over, you can say you truly and fully enjoyed the ride. You got the ticket and the fast pass. You’re coming around the loop and going upside down. It’s fun isn’t it?

Hold fast. I got you.

Much love, T