It’s difficult for me to fathom into words, the constellation I see in my mind. This web, however, is not made of stars nor is it a vessel of fire, each with its own civilization tangled within the depths of space.
I hope you enjoyed the somewhat poetic intro. Let’s dive straight into it:
Why do we gloss over how incredible life is? Come on. How cool is it that we are able to comprehend and communicate with one another so effortlessly, as if it was our sole purpose to seek these connections all along. I wholeheartedly believe that we are a part of something greater. Something beyond us all. I am also certain that someone before me has spat out the same things that I’ll bring up in this trail of thoughts – but enjoy the 2 AM rambling anyway.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why most people don’t care about each other’s presence, and I think it mainly comes down to whether you believe in the whole “fate vs free will” concept or not. So in English, we are reading the books, “Kiss of the Fur Queen” by Thomson Highway, and “After Dark” by Haruki Murakami. The two books complement each other, and touch on the themes of connections, people, and purpose, but are delivered in very different ways. I read “Kiss of the Fur Queen,” a novel about two young Cree boys who are sent to residential schools and abused in the hands of priests and their superiors. However, they manage to fulfill their “life’s purpose” and share their gift of music and dance. It’s sad, yes, but the story unfolded in such a euphoric way that my overall takeaway from Highway was that as long as we find a passion, grow it, and share it with the world, that’s all you can really ask for in life.
My peers read, “After Dark,” which I gather (from classroom discussions) it’s got something to do with how paths that never cross, always *almost* converge. Something to do with a Denny’s in the middle of Tokyo. I thought it was thought-provoking in the way that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Nice, I still remember something from Physics 11 I took three years back. This rule, extending beyond the physical realm, can apply to our existence as a whole. Everything is connected. We are – you and me, through this screen. We are closer than we may think, and you are reading this for a reason. The idea is that on average, all people are six, or fewer, connections away from each other. “Six degrees of separation.”
So why do I bring this up? Because everything has a consequence. Whether we like it or not. Some things are more obvious than others, like a stranger applying to the same prestigious university as you, so that directly impacts your life because you are bound by this common goal, and there is now one more person that the admissions team will have to consider as they make their decision on you. What if we all lived like every our every move will one another in indescribable ways? We’ve all heard about the butterfly effect – the classic, a butterfly flaps it’s wing; the movement was enough to cause a hurricane across the world. In a sense, it already does. Our actions affect others, maybe not to the same extent as to ourselves, but yes, it definitely does. With this in mind, does it make sense to trust that we are not united in some way? And if so, shouldn’t we care more about each other than our individual goals? After all, we’re just smaller versions of solar systems in the milky way, and larger versions of neurons in our central nervous system.
Now, if we look at it from further away, trying to answer the ultimate question, “what is the meaning of life?” there really is none. Everything to live for, is created by man. The concept of a “purpose,” is subject to the individual. Do we all have one? What’s up with people and their desire to rationalize everything? If it doesn’t make sense in the first place, then why do people spend their entire lives trying to understand the unknown? Before you come at me and say that it’s because I’m just a 17 year old senior going through an early quarter-life crisis, that I just don’t understand the reality of how thing are, I’ve just got a lot on my mind lately. Maybe it’s just a phase, I don’t know. I figured, why not share some of the unfiltered thoughts racing through my mind. Okay, even physics, chemistry, biology, the core of science, will be outdated some day. Outdated by our successors. Therefore, why should we learn about things that are arbitrary in its nature? I guess it’s hard to imagine how our world would look if everyone had this mindset.
To conclude, because I feel like I’ve touched on a lot of concepts that probably don’t make sense, let’s go back to the constellation I envision. If you couldn’t guess after all of this, it’s us. We are the extraordinary. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why we care so much about life, and ironically, at the same time, why we don’t care much about others. I mean, REALLY care about others. In the way that you care for your friends, family, or yourself even. Rewinding further back, when I think about why I started to ponder such questions, probably stems from the fact that I care so much. About everything. Over the years, I fell into the habit of just not caring because it was so much easier that way. To think simpler. Of course, in this reality I pretty much have to allocate time for my objective growth and by now, I’ve accepted that I will not find answers to most questions that arise, but it’s still important to ask them. I think a lot of people, as they age, lose their curiosity in search of physical, objective achievements.
Alright, that still didn’t make that much sense. So I guess I will have to follow up another time.
ON A COMPLETELY (but kind of related) UNRELATED NOTE: another thing I don’t quite fully understand is why people fall in love or form attachments to people, things, places, and (insert noun here). Okay, let’s save that for a future ramble.
Anyway, I hope this piece finds you well. After all, we are connected by (less than) six degrees right?
Goodnight.
Olyvia Guo 