diff --git a/_posts/2018-04-20-Why-are-you?.md b/_posts/2018-04-20-Why-are-you?.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33fb8e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2018-04-20-Why-are-you?.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Why are you?" +image: whyareyou.jpg +category: editorial +excerpt: "" +--- + +#### **_“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.”_** - Albert Camus + + +The predominant intention behind writing this editorial was its being read; to gain appreciation from as many people as possible. Because that is what defines the *“success”* of an article. + +Success: A rather familiar concept, isn’t it? + +But consider this: The average human being is a 1.75 m tall living organism with an expected life span of about 80 years, probably sitting on a chair somewhere on a planet that is over 4.6 billion years old and has a radius of approximately 6371 km in a “solar system”. This solar system is organized around the “sun” – an entity 1.3 million times larger than our planet – which is basically just an average sized star among more than a 100 billion stars in a galaxy that’s just one among 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. + +Just the *observable* universe. + +In the (literally) larger picture, anyone – including you, dear reader – is just like a speck of dust that crosses one's path in life for but a fraction of a second and doesn’t alter anything. + +*“How does this even matter?”* you may ask. It is here on earth that there is life. All life is tiny. All life is short-lived. Should being able to make a difference in the cosmic scheme of things really be our concern? Should we not aspire to create a more immediate, localized difference, which is far more plausible? + +Thousands of species have walked our planet through time; they have come and gone, in a manner similar to the passing of each day. We scarcely remember the people responsible for the progress of our civilization; fire is an indispensable phenomenon that sustains our civilization – electricity, a majority of chemical processes and vehicles, all involve the use of fire. But do we really care enough to enquire who discovered it? + +After – or perhaps even before – the human race is wiped out, no one will know about what you did, or how exceptionally talented you were. The chronicle of your life – however magnificent – will be lost in the sands of time. + +A billion years from now, the Earth may stay where it is, governed by another species, circling the sun in a galaxy among a lot of galaxies, and no one would care about how many Jews Hitler had killed. + +*Change is permanent*, they say; *transience, the unwritten law of the universe.* Why then, should we bother at all? Why should we even care to make a difference sitting on this tiny little rock in the universe? What does success come to mean, given that we know the entire logistics of how the world works may change a few hundred thousand years down the line? + +There are a lot of erroneous assumptions underlying these quiet musings, primarily that the question of life can be condensed and objectified into a given combination of words: It cannot be. + +What if one doesn’t mind the transience at all? What if they simply want to live in the now? And what if they don't? + +The answers to this eternal question of life can be many. They can all be correct and they can all be wrong. The relevance of the answers – and of the question itself – depends solely on your perspective. There can be as many perspectives as there have been humans; perhaps more. + +Figuring out yours is a battle that you have to fight alone. + + + + diff --git a/images/posts/whyareyou.jpg b/images/posts/whyareyou.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf9b2b3 Binary files /dev/null and b/images/posts/whyareyou.jpg differ