(Speaker lines in italics, audience response in bold)
The universe is vast, and dark, and cold.
But we are not.
The stars are silent, and ancient, and impossibly far away.
But we are not.
The laws of physics are indifferent to hope, or desperation, or love.
But we are not!
Does anything in the universe care?
Yes! We care! There is light in the world, and it is us!
We are flawed.
We’re learning.
We are fragile.
We’re getting stronger.
To the best of our knowledge, we are alone in the universe.
But we have each other.
Our history is littered with tragedy and despair.
We can do better.
We visit countless cruelties and injustices on each other to this day.
So we must do better.
We lost five hundred million to Smallpox.
So we destroyed Smallpox.
Hundreds of millions of us are still in poverty.
But fewer every year.
Hundreds of thousands are lost to Malaria.
But fewer every year.
Our problems are legion.
Then so will our compassion, dedication, and ingenuity.
There is no destiny written for us.
Then we will write our own.
We may lose.
But we will try anyway
because there isn’t anyone else.
I really enjoy reading everything you write Jai – it continues to instil in me a deep sense of patience and compassion for others, as well as an urgency to do everything one can to build a better world. I constantly think back to Turing’s words, “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
Thanks 🙂
Agree, thanks
Yep. Thanks.
This was a really great read and something I hope is actually kept in a few hearts. There’s a great sense of stewardship over this plot of space which we can inhabit.
Thank you for writing it.
I really like the idea, and now i want to include solsticesט ritual in my scifi story. thanks!
Atheists are just undercover self-deifiers.
Thanks for proving that again.