Source: Mass Effect 3. This image is the property of EA/Bioware. |
'Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.' – Shel Silverstein
The last sounds of a dying dream, I think, are to be found in our conviction that there will come a day when we will make that dream our reality. And perhaps we will. Perhaps we won't. But today is not that day...
I would not judge a person by their convictions, beliefs, dreams, ideas. I would not judge who they are and who they crave to be. Unless... Unless, by their chosen way of life, they are inherently harmful to themselves, to those around them – or even to every other person on this small world. Hence, the fundamental contradiction in my worldview: if I am not to judge, save by those criteria, I would still be required to find billions of people guilty (in my specific definition of the term), including myself.
It would seem a rather bright notion to not pass judgement, then, wouldn't it? After all, that is a choice, rather than a necessity. And it tends to lead us away, to shift our focus from what is truly important – perpetuating a stagnant perspective does not really present us with a grand myriad of possibilities and directions, and paths, and ideas. On the contrary, we become the victims of a cyclical paradigm that we choose to reinforce.
Let us move past the inherent inadequacies of a self-centred point of view...
We now perceive the world in all its intrinsic depth and beauty – we see the full breadth of the crowning achievement, of the probabilistic miracle that is Life. And we see, finally, how we, one species on a small planet orbiting a mundane star in the context of a vastness beyond comprehension, have managed to make such a bloody mess of the rare chance we have been given. We are now on the verge: and we plan to take with us as much as we can. Over the edge and into a Chaos of our own making.
Let us move past the inherent inadequacies of a self-centred point of view...
We now perceive the world in all its intrinsic depth and beauty – we see the full breadth of the crowning achievement, of the probabilistic miracle that is Life. And we see, finally, how we, one species on a small planet orbiting a mundane star in the context of a vastness beyond comprehension, have managed to make such a bloody mess of the rare chance we have been given. We are now on the verge: and we plan to take with us as much as we can. Over the edge and into a Chaos of our own making.
Of course, I cannot know if and when we shall take the figurative leap. And I doubt there is anyone who can predict this with any degree of certainty. There is too much darkness in this world for any of us to hope to see clearly. There are too many unknowns, too many complex contructs preventing us from understanding. There is too much to do – and too little time.
But there is also hope. The potential for rapid, fundamental and positive change is a human trait we should learn to exploit. It should not be reserved only for radical situations – rather, we must learn to want to become better, each and every one of us, each and every day. We must embrace this part of ourselves, I believe, if we are to have any hope of flying when we step forwards from this new edge. Instead of plummeting to a new and singularly unpleasant depth for our species.
Without hope, we do have nothing left. We would be no more than the parts that form us – and no greater than the parts of the artificial, mechanical construct that we form. But there is more to us than we choose to see. There is hope in the darkest of places: our souls are not an exception. As long as there are people who want to know that there is more to us than meets the eye, our spark need not die out.
In the end, the choice is ours... We must choose hope.
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