This is about insignificant crumbs of nothing.
You are an insignificant crumb of nothing. Your size, when compared with the sheer vastness of our known universe, would be roughly close to that of a single atom floating next to the island of Manhattan. We (you, me, everyone you've ever met) are all insignificant crumbs of nothing. If you could get a bird's eye view of the entire universe, that vast collection of billions of interstellar shopping malls, you wouldn't even be able to see our galaxy, the Milky Way. Neither would you see any of our neighboring galaxies, or even the large cluster of galaxies we reside inside: no, we are truly cosmically insignificant.
But, we are conscious. At least, we believe so. Possibly, just possibly, the only conscious beings in the entire universe, as unlikely as that may seem. And each of us: you, me, your mother, a dog down the street, are all composed of atoms created in the Big Bang.
We are all the same age, and we are all made up from matter that was once smaller than the head of a pin. You, a potted fern, and a stapler are all essentially the same. Think about that.
Cole Slaw, for an insignificant crumb of nothing, took being evicted from his crumb of an apartment quite seriously. He was pissed off as he ran with his olive green turtle-shell suitcase to catch the crumb known locally as the 501 Streetcar.
At exactly that moment, as he ran sweating, a large throbbing red star in a relatively nearby galaxy winked out for the final time, and collapsed upon itself, sucking everything –even rays of light– within millions and millions of miles into the hole it left behind. This star choking on its own vomit would not be visible to people on Earth for six million years.
Cole had no idea the star even existed.
A gargantuan super-galaxy that was spinning out of control, destroying stars and planets like a child destroying ants, swallowed up
Three large galaxies on the opposite side of the universe. Cole was only aware of one other galaxy: our nearest neighbor: Andromeda, which will eventually collide with our galaxy forming a super galaxy of our own. Perhaps, we too will careen out of control gobbling up star cities for the rest of time. Think of it as something to look forward to.
Cole knew that he immediately needed to find a place to stay, and at the same time was vaguely aware the universe was expanding, but had no idea that the more it expanded the faster it traveled. He had no idea that our 'Big Bang' was, in fact, the fifth big bang. The universe had been expanding and collapsing on itself for a googol's worth of years. Cole had no idea this was the fifth try at a universe anymore than he was aware that he'd existed since the very first big bang. And, so have you.
Happy Birthday.
