A Very Short Sorrow

A reflection on the nature of continuums and contagions.

Thanks to the new subscribers, Marcus and Em. I’m glad to see you here.

Today’s very short post grew from the seed of a thought that srpouted in my noggin yesterday: We live in a world no one asked for and maybe no one really wants.

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A Very Short Sorrow

This is how the story goes: A man; a woman; a tempter; a piece of knowledgeful fruit; a string of perpetual consequences, each building on the previous one. 

The theft of the first camel leads to the burning of the thief’s hut, which leads to the counter-burning of the first arsonist’s village. Nature’s first war, which leads to another, then another, then another, and so forth, and so on until the entirety of Hiroshima is flash-flattened by nuclear winds. The flash-flattening of Hiroshima is a coronation event, too. See the crown worn by the World’s first nuclear power, the world’s first global super-power. Watch the nations bow down to the new Emporer, bring gifts, pay homage, make treaties. 

Here’s the new deal: amass wealth, learn the secret of plastics, of computing, of more efficient production. Watch the empire’s finest climb into rockets, ride fire into the reaches of space, set foot on a cold rock. See the Empire run phone lines, lay cable, shoot satellites into the night sky. Hubris streching, stretching, stretching to where? At least as far as Mars.