A letter for a friend. No matter what we do, or where we are, we are never alone in this world. Everything that happens around us, everything that changes in society is the product of somebody making their mark. We all have the greatest chance in having been given our life, the fact that we are here proves that we have already conquered astronomical odds just to get here where we are now, and the fact that each one of us here serves to show that we have beaten further odds already. We all search for the meaning in life, but there is a universal truth about it - there is no pre-conceived meaning to life. There is no grand design, no fate, no game being played. There is simply you, me and a world of people just like us trying to make it in life. But the fact that there is no meaning to life is the most beautiful thing of all. The meaning of life is your own to make, your design, your game, your choices. Everything you do changes something. There are no small actions, everything comes to something and can often change things far down the line. And now that you are here, let me tell you something: you have permanently, indelibly, changed the world. Your very being here has changed it in such a way that the world would not be the same today if you had never been born. You have made a mark in the universe that will stand for eternity. Even when we are gone to dust, the universe still remembers, because we are the universe experiencing itself. To quote Neil DeGrasse Tyson: “We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us.” Nothing that has ever happened is as important as the moment we are in now, the breaths that we take, the moves that we make, everything is important. The smallest good we do can have huge positive ramifications somewhere, somehow. If we can leave this world just a little bit better off than when we first entered it, then we have done a good job. You are here, now, making a mark on the world. We need to ensure that the mark that we leave is a good one, spend that little extra bit of time helping someone, work hard to benefit others - they might not thank you for it, but at least you did what you could. No one is ever truly forgotten if people remember them for their actions. No one is every truly alone if people love them. Nothing is hopeless in this world, no one is completely lost. There is a world of such beauty just outside our windows, all we need to do is look. We spend so much time in the grey urban environment, we forget that colour exists, and, oh what beauty it holds when we truly open our eyes to it. I know you have been thinking of your life as of late, considering what has been happening, and you have lost the colour for the fear you feel. Just remember that we are still here, and always will be. Nothing can change that, nothing will change that. Nothing is more important than the moment we are in and nothing is more crucial than the next action we take. Once you asked me what my life philosophy was, how I can continue to be positive. I told you at the time that it would take too long to explain, too much to go through. Here you have your answer, in this letter. I will leave you with one more quote from Neil DeGrasse Tyson: “The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. Youd be surprised how far that gets you.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:08:26 +0000