This doesn't have an "originally handwritten on... " date, but it was handwritten before being posted here. Therefore, there is something timeless about it, that I sort of like. Please indulge me.
~K
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"Hello there."
"Hello."
"What's going on?"
"Nothing much -- just... stargazing... if you can technically call it that."
"Why wouldn't you call it that?"
"Well, look up there."
"Okay."
"You see all those stars?"
"Yep."
"Some of them went out centuries ago."
"Really?"
"Yes. I mean, there are still plenty of live stars up there, but in some places -- where we see brilliant illumination, there is nothing."
"I thought light couldn't escape black holes."
"Well not all stars supernova into black holes. Some just go out. Either way, the light that we are seeing from all of those stars has taken so long to reach our eyes that the light itself is well past the reach of it's own contemporary situation. Even direct sunlight that we feel during the day is about eight minutes old."
"Ah. So... why don't you call it star gazing?"
"It's more basking in star rays, really. Kinda poetic when you think about it though."
"How so?"
"Well, take one of the dead stars for example, one of the dead ones that we can still see from here."
"Okay."
"All you see is their light, right? I mean, what a legacy. I would that I could live and die so well, to be a light that guides something millions of light years away. It's just sad that we as humans tend to be far more remembered for our notoriety --Blackbeard, Manson, Hitler, Mao. All of them timeless echos of darkness- warnings of what not to be. It's a shame really, to live in constant fear of what you might become."
"A shame?! But that isn't necessarily so. Plenty of people have made brilliant memories -- Mother Theresa, Marie Curie, Galileo, DaVinci... "
(both of them simultaneously) "Jesus."
"Yeah, but for the most part, it would seem that the stars have out-brillianced us."
"Out-brillianced?"
"Yeah, 'out-brillianced' even dead from millions... billions of light years away, they can still light our paths at night. Isn't that amazing? Do you think the light we emit illuminates the paths of the stars the way the light they emit does for us?"
"I don't know."
"It is entirely possible that from forever away other planets will see the light from our sun (that we've always seen) after she dies."
"Of course, we'd be dead too."
"Will we? Or will be just be watching it from a different vantage point? Let's pretend that our sun was large enough to eventually supernova."
"Is it?"
"No... but imagine it is.When a star like that dies, it has the potential to implode/explode when the gravitational forces pulling things inward are no longer kept in stasis by the nuclear reactions perpetually pushing things outward. There is no repealing those gravitational forces. When that happens, when the equilibrium fails, the gravitational pull becomes so strong that nothing within a certain parameter can escape it's vacuum. It is said that part of you may die in the Hawking Field... but it is just as likely that you'd be split and part of you would fall away while the other part of you would float through timeless space."
"You're fascinating."
"Huh?"
"Well, you sit here, waxing poetic about the science of the universe. Other girls talk about the guys they like, the things they want, their feelings,... then there is you... tiny little person full of amazing passions... discussing the matter that gets sucked into black holes and contemplating the universe."
"It's actually finite, you know."
"What is?"
"The observable universe. It has to be."
"Then why have I always been told that it is infinite?"
"I have no idea. The physics of this universe are the physics all over it, and our universe has recorded moments of expansion and contraction."
"Yes, I've heard that."
"Then clearly it must be finite. Otherwise where is the space that it expands into?"
"Hmm."
"Think about it this way." (Grabs an imaginary balloon and blows it up then speaks in a funny accent.) "This balloon, it is finite, yes? It has a place of ending, a boundary, like a sort of membrane separating the gases within from the gases without. See?"
(laughs, but plays along) "Yes."
"If you blow more air into it..." (blows more air into the fake balloon) "... it expands, right?"
"Of course."
"Now, imagine that you are a 'Who' from 'Whoville', and you live on an air molecule inside of this balloon. Do you think that you'd be aware of the size of the balloon that your are encased in? Or would you be so preoccupied with your life on the air molecule world that you never noticed?"
"I probably wouldn't notice."
"That's probably what most of the other 'Whos' would say too!" (laughs) "But, now you're not a 'Who'. Now you're a you. And you know that the existence of a 'Whoville' on an air molecule inside of a balloon is possible. You know this because you have perspective. You can see what is beyond the balloon." (Indicates this by waving her hand around the inflated balloon. She returns to her natural voice.) "Now we're both 'Whos' again, and this world... " (she points to the ground beneath her)"... this earth, is our molecule. Do we see the balloon we're in? Do we see it's membrane, it's border? Do we imagine what may be beyond it?"
"You know -- I get the feeling that one of us does."
"It's funny. People are always so fascinated that the balloon expands and contracts. I'm more fascinated that the balloon has a space beyond to expand into. What is that beyond space? Is that where God is?"
"I don't know."
"... And what if those scary black holes are nothing but hyper-speed doorways to where God is? Patiently waiting on us to stop being so small and unaware?"
"Who are you?"
"Oh, just some weird girl from Podunk, Nowhere."
"No. No... I think there's much more to you than that."
(Ends in silence)
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