The Ultimate in Recycling

I read the other day where a star exploded in space, The explosion was so tremendous that light could be seen with the naked eye here on earth. We would have had to look to the heavens at the exact moment as the light only lasted about an hour, but observatories saw it and record the demise. It was estimated the star was 700 times the mass of our sun, Wow!

I have been pondering the future of the earth and our role in its continuation. I am now leaning toward the idea that the nature of the universe is creation. Not a very original thought, but in my context it may be somewhat different.

It appears to me that time and the nature of the universe are inexorably linked. Nothing withstands time, our human bodies age and time tears us down. Water wears down rock, given enough time. Wind erodes mountains, given enough time. The earth grinds up the tectonic plates that comprise earth's surface, pulls them into the molten core, remelts the old and disgorges the new in the form of lava from volcanoes. I can't help but wonder if a Bud Lite can has made it to the bottom of the ocean where the recycling center seems to operate and has started its journey to some form of rebirth.

We shall all go through that recycling center, given enough time. It would be interesting to be able to view time in its infinite passage. The earth might appear as a churning cauldron, and the life span of man a flash that hardly registers on the cosmic radar. Yet, in the brief period of time we flash into existence and pass on into history we change the face of the earth faster than any erosion medium known. We dig holes in hours it takes nature years to perform, we carve holes through mountains in years when it takes nature millions of years. On the one hand we are the most destructive force on the face of this old earth. Yet on the other hand we are the most creative.

The real question is are we fulfilling a role, or are we just another force in the system. I believe we are just another force in the system. We do fulfill a role, that role is to be exactly what we are. Will it make any difference to the earth if we consume its oil to quickly, or pollute its oceans? Not in the end, the recycling center will handle all our attempts and continue to churn. It will do its thing and reform land, remake oil and gas, regenerate wind, purify water and provide the basis for existence, whether we are here or not. Man is no more than a spec of dust in the scheme of the system, and it will recycle our atoms and molecules repurifying itself until the engine that drives the recycling center finally ceases to work and then when all of this solar system is used up perhaps the sun will explode and simply add fodder to the larger recycling center.

Will man live on, that is only important to man. The system doesn't care. It creates new, offering opportunity, what use of the resources inhabitants make is their business because in the end it will not make any difference to the recycling center.