Getting older is, no doubt, the worst thing we have to do. I don’t relish it, nor does perishing right now seem like the proper option. I look at the elderly people in my life and I wonder why they are hanging on? This isn’t a new thought for me, I can remember seeing my great grand mothers when I was in my teens and thinking, “Why do we live this long? Where are the velociraptors to take down us elderly members of the humanity herd?” Yeah, I liked dinosaurs back then. Still kinda do. As I grew older, but not ‘up’, I’ve come to realize that the velociraptors just have names like ‘Influenza’, ‘pneumonia’, ‘cancer’ and ‘covid’ now. What a way to go, eh? I mean, given the choice of being ripped apart by human-sized lizards or lingering in a hospital for a week or so before crossing that rainbow bridge, I guess I’d take the latter. At least it would be over in like, 30 minutes. We spend all this money on drones and viruses, but not on bringing apex predators back from extinction? Pity.

People have a reason for sticking around, for me, it is curiosity; I love watching history unfold! Will humanity ever reach the stars? Other than our own I mean, baby steps, but we need that warp drive! I want to see the end of the universe! I need to know, are there other species out there? Not just life, which I know is an optimistic hope to think there is something else out there at all, let alone a whole other galaxy of thinking beings. They would probably think we were tasty snacks. Humanity has the ‘main character syndrome’, which is probably the same for every other race in the universe, then suddenly we aren’t the chosen species! Aw, disappointment! Given our nature there would be fighting and that, I have to admit, I spend more than my fair share of time thinking about. The distances involved, holy shit! How do we wage a war where getting assets into position could be effective? By the time we knew we were fighting there would be three thousand asteroids heading to fall on our planet.

Seeing how that all unfolds is what would keep me grasping for breath as the velociraptors eat me. “Wait, wait, I haven’t streamed the last episode of ‘Inconsolable’ yet! Not my arm! Not my arm!” Hopefully I’d remember to gasp out, “Choke on it! Choke on it!” as my final words, to keep things classy. Perhaps in primary school we should focus on telling the children to find to a reason to live, instead of all this history, math and art stuff? The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

Or is it this, to quote Mister Peanutbutter:

“The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn’t a search for meaning. It’s to keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you’ll be dead.”