Nothing Matters

Maintenance

A downbeat attitude gets us nowhere. However, people wonder where they are heading when faced with this constant battle of maintenance. Keeping things going, making sure things are fed and watered, bills paid, drains cleared, friendships affirmed, and toe nails clipped. There are forms of progress made without doubt in some areas. The houses we helped build provide places for people to live. The food we produce gives nourishment and the games we craft provide entertainment. We are always learning despite ignoring warnings from history. We make medical advancements. New drugs and better technology become available even if it is just new techniques and methods of doing things quicker and more cheaply. The bulk of the population go into work and do their bit. They return home, arrange something to eat and retire to bed after a few short hours on the couch and begin to wonder what it is for. All those people you shifted in taxis make their way back again. Even the blood sweat and tears that are spent developing new medicines seems disheartening if their effectiveness wanes over time. Those that think about greater productivity end up with just a minor improvement. Those that push for progress usually achieve nothing more than a minor improvement from the slight tweaks they make. We make changes that introduce new issues. A change can be just that, a change and not much more. Hence this book started from the very thought of why we bother. It will be read by a tiny number of people and lost in the mass of all the other works, camouflaged by the array of more enticing fashionable works.

We can revel in a long lie in, staying in bed until early afternoon. We might enjoy idling away a day or two. However, most tire of this when days of doing little extends to weeks and months. Some of us begin collecting, hoarding, cataloguing. Others extend their skill set. If nothing else, we certainly feel better once the house has been vacuumed and the rubbish put out and as much as we can do today has been done. Being thankful that we have another day where we can still do things for ourselves is enough for many but there are times when we look for more.

Some things we create, and mould may linger but the bulk of it will be refreshed, changed, and updated. The vultures circle at your death picking the prized items to sell, a little is stored for a while whilst the remainder is discarded. Only the arguments about who is to pay for the hearse and next world arrangements persist, albeit briefly until the acrimony fades. Nothing much is forever. Not really. Only in our blinkered aspiration. Maybe some pearls of wisdom get handed down, utilised or rebelliously ignored and acted upon in a polar opposite way.

Mankind has achieved a lot, much of it visible like the impressive buildings and transport systems. Other accomplishments are hidden underground; pipes enabling us to flush our waste and cables by which we power things and communicate. All of this and so much more gives us a real sense of being the top dog in the animal kingdom. It also leads us to think that there is a grand plan of some sort.

With lots of people working together, mountains of rock and earth can be moved to build dams diverting colossal amounts of water. We have our thoughts diverted too. Away from our insignificance in the grand scale of the universe towards what we can see around us. It is all too easy to forget that we are on a tiny planet floating in a wide, wide sea of space. With ever greater light pollution we stop bothering to look up as much now anyway. Another thing out of sight out of mind.

Whilst we have the tools to achieve earthly ends, we have some serious limitations. Getting to the moon took enormous effort and staying there for any length of time has proved somewhat difficult. The prospect of colonising other planets is highly unlikely. We would not survive any lengthy trip outside our solar system. Not in our current form anyway. Our bodies are suited to this cosy place and would fall apart elsewhere. Even if we were to harness new energy sources in time to aid the journey, we are unlikely to do much before the conditions on this planet deteriorate. Mankind is strong and dominant in its domain but feeble outside of it.

We live in a relatively thin atmosphere. We can’t go too far above nor below the surface without encountering problems. Where many go on pilgrimages to distant lands to fulfil obligations, one needs to go somewhere above 14000 ft. to get the experience of how hard it is to walk about and do things there that are ordinary at sea level. If you intend to acclimatise on the way up, go higher to get the same effect. Get a feel of your feebleness.

Some people have the power to upend the lives of millions and change a lot, but they have no control over the destiny of the universe. As a species, we can play no significant part in the running of the universe for we are microbes, truly miniscule on the scale of what is out there. This can invite us to look introspectively on our life. Some may speculate that as technology progresses, we will be capable in the future to do something about a large object hurtling towards the earth. A large explosive could alter its trajectory so long as it is spotted early enough. However, the odds of success with a fragmented parcel of rocks is slim. There are countless doomsday scenarios that are not worth worrying too much about so instead we are more inclined to keep our patch tidy and sort small troubles out.

The earth shields us from the harsh external environment with a magnetic core and a specific atmosphere, for how long it will remain that way, we can’t be certain. For most people, so long as they are going to be okay and their children will be alright, it is not something we feel the need to pay too much attention to.

What happens on the earth is irrelevant to the wider universe. Whether we thrive or not won’t make any difference whatsoever. The earth will continue its orbit around the sun however damaged or pristine. The rest of the planets, stars, comets and all the cosmic dust will also follow some course as they have done for some time. If the earth broke up it wouldn’t matter. It would be a pity for us as we would be without a place to live, but we are the only ones that think it matters. All that knowledge, all those talents would be lost. All gone forever. If it makes you happy you could archive all of humankind’s discoveries and scientific postulations. Store them in multiple vaults and as a further backup fire them off in bright yellow capsules in multiple directions to different galaxies. For surely all this work can’t be in vain. Maybe we could pass from this life into a virtual electronic form and float in an ocean of marvelousness. Great idea, but reward is felt through the chemical changes within a body not a change in bit state.

Have you served a higher purpose, and have you done enough to qualify? There is nothing but admiration for those who do not fake their belief and have real faith in their god. They understand that the godly force is around us, watching from the side lines waiting to pull aside only the really committed ones. So long as you have picked the correct spiritual entity from the mass of conflicting ones available. Was it reasonable to make the younger ones in your charge follow your lead. Are you comfortable with them feeling guilty if they are not as committed as you? Were they given the chance to check out alternatives?

Some believe that if we all were to obey the orders from up above or form a harmonious bond with one another, all things will come together to form an unbeatable sphere of rectitude. If only the arguments would peter out. Problems make us as much as they break us. If we whittled all the languages down to one and stuck to a solitary belief system, the job will be done. And that will be the point where it is game over for all.