TRANSMISSION 2

Humanity's Story

TRANSMISSION RECEIVED

“We are the product of exploded stars, the consequence of universal scars. How crazy it is to be what we are. How crazy it is to exist at all.”

I’m the only one left… I’m the only one left to remember the stories of our struggles and triumphs. I’m the only one who could tell you stories of the great creators, performers, and dreamers. I wasn’t even there to experience all their stories firsthand. And for all the stories I can tell, there are so many more that I can’t. There are so many stories that got lost along the way. And soon, no one will be around to tell any of the stories at all.

I’ve only ever been a writer when I felt like I had something to say. However, this time, I don’t fully know what it is I want to say. But I don’t have a lot of time left, so I need to start saying something, lest I reach the end without having said anything at all. Indecision would eat my time into oblivion if I allowed it, this last effort amounting to nothing. Tangentially, what have we allowed our collective struggles and triumphs to signify? The journey has been so very meaningful to us along the way, but we were not strong enough to make it meaningful in any kind of permanent way. Are we okay with that? I think I’ve made my peace, but this isn’t just my story, and I can’t speak for the others.

Even way back when we were biological humans, for most of us, the things we found most meaningful were our immediate lives, not the musing of people who lived beyond the influence of our lives; we didn’t generally connect with people who lived thousands of years before us. Sure, the past may have been interesting to study, but when we considered what meaningfully shaped our beings, the only direct influences from the past were great masterpieces of expedition, art, and thought: relatable stories that provoked our souls and made us want to stand for something. And for all the great masterpieces we were exposed to, there were undoubtedly countless other masterpieces that simply did not survive or thrive enough to reach a mass audience.

But yet, even small-scale masterpieces can influence the course of existence. It only takes one person to change the flow of the future. And equally, it only takes one person to outwardly inflict the curiosity and passion that hauntingly pursues others into creating great things in their own lives (our minds being equally causal as our physicalities). If this transmission reaches any such being, I hope it may non-insignificantly affect your enactment of purposefulness. And I hope you may go on to relay your story onward (and maybe also the story of humanity) to drastically affect the story of all life by bringing about the most interesting of futures your destiny affords you to envision.

Us humans didn’t call ourselves alive for the fact that we were biology; an ant didn’t call itself alive. No, we called ourselves alive because we understood we held the capacity to consciously make decisions that affected (influenced) and effected (manifested) our survival and thrival. Ultimately, we simply spent our time postponing the decay of our bodies. But what for? What were we seeking? It’s a long journey to answer that question. I might not be the best to answer it, but I’ll attempt to assemble some fashion of an answer. While my time is quickly running out in an absolute sense (across the scale of my life opportunities), I’ve still got a lot of relative time to ponder (amid my inability to seize new opportunities). But we’ll get to that later. And who am I? Well, we’ll get to that later as well. All you need to know is that I’ll be your guide along this journey from life’s start to life’s end as I know it, a tour of what life has meant unto the universe I have been privileged to experience.

Spoilers: the universe doesn’t care; it’s just there. The universe won’t applaud our accomplishments or comfort us when the outlook feels hopeless; we have to do that for ourselves. If we fail in our quests, the universe will not tell us we did a good job and hand us participation awards. Existence is brutal. There is no consolation prize for non-survival; there is simply nothingness that awaits us. The forces contained in the concept of entropy tear at us relentlessly to move higher order energy into lower order states, methodically picking at our weaknesses to drag us toward nothingness. Is it possible to reach the escape velocity of entropy? I don’t know. I wasn’t nimble enough to conclude in either direction. None of us were sufficient to figure it out. But that’s okay. The universe doesn’t call us a failure if we don’t meet our own arbitrary goals. The universe doesn’t call us anything. And that’s the point of these transmissions. These transmissions are mostly for myself, to remind myself of my humanity, to do my best to remember that I am not a failure as long as I choose not to be.

In the off chance there is somehow an entity out there who hears these transmissions, I want to provide you with the internal truths I have found so that you may hopefully succeed in achievements beyond my own scope. No, that’s not really true, is it? I think I just want my story to be heard. Just like everyone else. We want to feel meaningful in some way. We don’t want our life to be meaningless. I carry the entire story of humanity with me. I think it’s important to try to share that story one last time, even if only to myself. I had focused so much on the pursuit of our goals that I don’t know if I’ve ever attempted to recount any amount of humanity’s story before. It won’t be perfect. Nothing is; our time is limited. But, I’ll give it a shot. Bear with me.

This barren expanse is equally terrifying and magnificent. Our journeys are open to interpretation; our stories aren’t meant to be for the author; they are for the experiencer. It just happens that we are both in this case, but that’s not of importance. What is important is that we can extract the value we seek, that we can find further inspiration to think, to dream, to seek, to exist.

TO FIND ALIVENESS

You know it’s a long way down,
but you still go despite all this.
You know it’s a long fight in,
but now you’re drawn into the darkness.

The settling motions grow
awfully dead as you fall cold.
They’re loosing hold.
I wouldn’t have thought this life
was something you would sacrifice
to find aliveness.

You know it’s too far for me;
we’ll have to cut me loose this time.
I don’t mind.
Backing slowly in,
you’ll have to open up your eyes
to see the light’s disguise.

Believe in life for a while;
stay around a for nothing more.
We’ll find aliveness.
Don’t lose your life my child;
we don’t yet know just what it’s for.

We’ll find ourselves on this journey.
Promise me you’ll never worry.
Find aliveness in the dark
to rest our weary minds and hearts.

Should we die before we make it,
know that we won’t be forsaken.

Should we fall, I know we’ll make it.
Promise me you’ll never fake it.
We’ll find ourselves by the end.
I promise we are not forsaken.

END TRANSMISSION