Death is the logical conclusion to life—we all must come to terms with that eventually. What I have a more difficult time accepting is that everything else will end one day, too. There is a timer on the universe and when it runs out, that’s it. And long before that happens, humankind will have gone extinct, too.
How do we go out? Nuclear war? Climate change leading to disease, famine, and floods? Or do we make it to outer space and postpone our inevitable demise? It sounds depressing, but I don’t really see it that way. I think it’s kind of beautiful. Maybe it’s that idea that death is what makes life worth living. If there are other intelligences out there on other worlds, maybe they find the remains of a strange society and wonder what went wrong. And if we are the only outpost in an otherwise empty universe, is that not also beautiful in a lonely sort of way?
Even if our species ends, I hope that life on earth will continue. That nature will continue to give rise to weird and wonderful life forms until the day that it doesn’t. Humanity outliving all other earthly life would be the most tragic ending of all to me.
So what is the use in thinking about it at all, you ask? Well, taking a big-picture approach, for me, makes it easier to see just how small we all are and, likewise, how small our day-to-day problems are. The bigger the perspective, the smaller my problems become. When work, school, politics, the pandemic, or anything starts to feel like too much, I just try to zoom out and get on with living. Because we are all lucky to be here; it seems inexplicable that any one of us should even exist to begin with.
Everything has its ending, and we have little say in how or when those ends come about. So instead, why not concern ourselves with our part in the play? Whether we put our energy toward art, science, government, or anything else, we all add something to the human story. Whether it ends in tragedy or triumph is out of our control.
We’re all just a bunch of monkeys trying our best to keep existing. Remember to laugh at the absurdity of it all and to be grateful for the time chance has granted us. Because one day—and this I promise you—it will end.