Our World, Our Universe

A Story by Jess

I wrote this based on a few quotes I found.

Our Universe, Our World

The words spill out of my mouth;

“We did this to ourselves. I mean, humans are the first ever living things to have feelings; nothing mattered before we came along and made it matter.

“But, really there would be no world without us. Sure, bugs would keep buzzing and plants would keep growing and birds would keep flying but no one would be around to witness it and attach any meaning to anything. Maybe one of those really smart dogs or monkeys would see a raccoon eating some leaves and the dog would remember it for the rest of his life, but the dog will never be able to make anything of this memory. But even if he did, none of the others dogs would be able to be changed by this memory.

“Because, in the end, unless we make something out of the things that we think in our mind then they kind of disappear. If you live your whole life with the secret of the universe inside you but you never tell anyone, you never write it down or draw a picture or write a song about it or anything then you’ll eventually die and so will the secret. And I guess that’s why art is so important. So that we can try to make something of the jumbled mess that is our mind, and that’s why God or whoever made different forms of art and different ways of expressing ourselves; so our ideas wouldn’t just disappear when we do. But maybe God didn’t make anything except us, maybe we’re the ones who made this world the way it is. I wonder if God is happy with what we’ve become.

“I want to know if you do.”

He looks at me as if I’m crazy. I smile.

“I’m happy, I think. When you think about all of the great things in our earth, all of the amazing things that humans have created it is pretty amazing. You can’t even begin to list all of the amazing things that make up our world, and the list is different for every person. And maybe that in itself is an amazing thing.”

I thought about this. Then he says;

“But what if the world were to continue for eternity, wouldn’t every idea and meaning get used up eventually, like what happens when everything’s been said and done and drawn and sung? Sure, we can just recycle the old ideas but that will take away what you said before about humans being the only ones able to make meaning. What happens when there’s no meaning left?”

I respond,

“There’s always going be more meaning, though. It can’t be exhausted. There’s always going to be creativity left- and if you run out of words to write or colours to paint then you can make more. At least that’s what I believe. I don’t want to sound like I’m an over-opinionated know-it-all, but I am.”

And after that there aren’t any more words to be spoken. So we’re just there. And even though this is nothing significant and one day when we’re both long dead this moment will be lost, swallowed up by the universe, sometimes you just have to be there.