Fall 2024
In the beginning, there was nothing.
Well, almost nothing. There was one very small something, but it was so small it hardly counted – it was maybe the size of a basketball.
Such a tiny ball – infinitely dense, scientifically speaking – and chock full of energy, heat and intelligence.
This being a creation story, I assume the being was feminine, and that she was curious about the rest of the universe. Of which, of course, there was none.
Not even blackness or emptiness, just Nothing. (I am sure I cannot even imagine this, given the poverty of my normal human brain.)
The being – I will call her Cosma – found this nothingness confusing. Her energy, intelligence and gender made her grow more and more curious about her origins. “Why do I exist, if not to serve some purpose?”
“And what purpose can I possibly serve when everything around me is simply not there?”
There was no one to talk to about this philosophical dilemma, so Cosma spent eons in lonely, soul-searching contemplation. And it came to her that there was only one solution. Only one colossal act of self-sacrifice would solve both her solitude and her lack of purpose.
Her decision made; the enterprise launched. Cosma began to pulse – contracting, expanding, vibrating with incalculable intensity. Finally, in a daring, heroic act of cosmic genesis…Cosma exploded.
It was a cataclysmic release of matter, a never-ending cascade of life. Sound, light, color, time, space, solar systems, galaxies and universes erupted. The magnitude and beauty of the event were staggering.
But Cosma herself no longer existed.
Or did she? She had planned for this moment. “I die creating order,” was her last thought. “Magnificent, sacred, unimaginably beautiful order.” So her fledgling universe expanded along her own divine laws of gravity, thermodynamics, isotropy, evolution and – yes, death.
But Cosma did not exactly die. Although no longer sentient, molecules of her are everywhere with us – every atom, every cell, every force of nature. Her devotion vibrates through every corner of her masterpiece.
Of all the undeserved glories! We humans, such an insignificant speck in her vast universe, are part of her stardust.
But we forget this too often – we lose need for harmony with others, we lose gratitude for the inexplicable gift of life. We forget that the existence of death should mean that pettiness is useless, and avarice completely nonsensical.
It turns out that we humans are at our best when hardship forces us to recognize our unity with others. And we do have our grand moments! Heroism, motherhood, generosity, altruism… over the millennia, we’ve thrived by learning to be good at cooperation. We can be penguins, we humans, gathering in circles of mutual protection.
We can channel Cosma’s miracle. We can show compassion. We can, at peek moments, feel the unity with everything everywhere.
That is our greatest strength.
We call it love.
LIFE AFTER WORK 