John Scalzi writes a rather moving and rational answer to the eternal questions of “is that all there is?” and “why bother?”
I have to say, it tracks with many of my own philosophies:
Whatever: Reader Request Week 2007 #4: The Inevitable Blackness That Will Engulf Us All
With the exception of the very last of these, theres not that much to be done about it; the universe is not notably sympathetic to our cries that we should be special and eternal. Its nice you feel that way, the universe is telling us, but one day Im going to end and Im going to take you with me. Once you wrap your brain around this simple and unalterable fact — the fact that not even the universe is getting out of here alive — the rest of it comes pretty easy. And you realize that to some extent worrying about enduring when your genome will dissolve, your planet will dry up, your sun will engulf your home and every single thing that ever was in the universe will randomly pop out of existence, a particle at a time, is a little silly. This frees you to stop freaking out about what will happen in the future and focus on what the hells going on now.
And I say, life’s a gift. Never mind who from, necessarily. Rock out and have a great day!
