It’s a great lie, and like all great lies it is hidden within some truth.
The universe is huge, and that’s true enough. We, by comparison are very, very, small, tiny, and who could deny that? Lulled by these self-evident truisms we are lead, innocent, into the lie itself: if the universe is so enormous, if we are so small and on this earth for such a short time, what we do has no bearing whatsoever in the “great scheme of things”. It’s nothing but a lie, and a huge deception.
Every action, every word we utter, leaves an indelible mark upon the universe. A man’s words leave his mouth and hang in the air for just a short time. Yet it cannot be said that those words cease to exist once the air stops resonating with their weight. The words can be remembered by those who hear them, retained and passed on, or even distorted completely. But still those words were given to the world by the man and remain there forever. Even if no one hears the man, his words are heard by himself, his thoughts have been given life. Even if both listener and speaker forget those words, they will have had their effect for a short time, and the consequences of them could be felt forever, the source forgotten. But what if the words are erased from the collective consciousness of humanity, having not moved a single person? Does that not mean the words were never said? Looking back upon the history of the entire universe, would those words of utterance – or even just one word – never be found? Of course they would still be there. We are not infants anymore. If we put our hands over our eyes the world doesn’t really disappear. If we forget our words, if everyone forgets our words, they still exist in the universe.
And this is only someone’s words I am speaking of. What then, of our actions? How must the universe contort itself to accommodate the consequences of our deeds? On the afternoon of the 25th of December, 1999, I placed flowers on the grave of my departed grandfather, just as my family did every Christmas day. Those flowers are long gone, returned to the earth to bring forth new flowers, or weeds. My grandfather’s grave still remains and so do I. But the time will come when I will stop placing flowers on my grandfather’s grave, and perhaps the time when my own children or grandchildren place flowers on my own. Will my grandfather’s grave be forgotten? In time, it will, as will mine. In hundreds of years my grave will be left untended, if the gravestone even remains. In thousands of year’s time my grandfather’s grave will no longer remain, and his body will be by this time a million pieces of everything else. In millions of year’s time the sun will finally have grown so huge that it will have engulfed the earth within its diameter. With the earth incinerated within a star that is itself dieing what then is the point of anything? It is this: that on the 25th of December, 1999, I placed flowers upon the grave of Gerald Hendry (1943 – 1992). It has happened. It will have always happened. And each and every one of us has left millions of such impressions upon the universe, forever.
Everything we do is an eternal act.
Continued later…
