Unlike other art, the written word cannot be consumed all at once, in a glimpse or a blink.
\nOf course, anyone would want to stand in front of a painting for an hour or so to get all they can from it, but they do not have to.
\nBut something written must be read, a few words at a time. And while reading speed may change, it will still require some passing of time.
\nTime seems to be infinite.
\nWe will die.
\nOur sun will die.
\nOur planet will be eaten with fire.
\nBut the universe is a grand and unfeeling thing, and it will go on without us.
\nTime seems to be infinite,
\nExcept it appears to have a beginning.
\nBefore the big bang, before the universe exploded into being,
\nThe density of energy is incomprehensible.
\nIt\u2019s not that there was no time, but\u2026
\nTime didn\u2019t mean anything.
\nThe way \u201cnorth\u201d loses meaning at the north pole.
\nTime may be infinite, but it is linear.
\nI picture a line on a coordinate plane,
\nJust like in a middle school geometry class.
\nThe arrows at the end mean it goes on forever.
\nI close my eyes and picture the line, 1 dimensional, but physical, real.
\nI hold the line in place, but then my mind, in the picture,
\nI move
\nAnd change my perspective,
\nInching closer and closer to the line, curving around until I am parallel to it, looking down it
\nOn top of it, facing infinity with it, and from that perspective
\nThe line disappears into a point,
\nLike a pencil pointed toward my eye,
\nAnd I can see the entire universe at once, all of eternity now,
\nAnd I wonder, dear reader, about you, about us,
\nAbout what would happen if we lived all our moments at once,
\nLike characters from Slaughter House IV,
\nexperienced the whole story from beginning to end in one explosive jolt,
\nOur own big bang,
\nOur own impossible infinity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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