We live in a cosmic coffin

We do not live in the best of possible worlds, as the philosopher Leibniz liked to think, nor do we live in a paradisiacal world and nowadays we know this only too well, thanks to science.

We don’t even live in an open space, as experts, cosmologists, physicists, etc. would have us believe, but rather in a cosmic coffin which, as well as being a coffin, also acts as a cosmic rubbish bin, that is, it collects and/or is bombarded with everything the cosmos chucks onto it. In other words, we could find ourselves buried under a mass of objects from outer space – meteorites, comets, stellar detritus, spatial material, ethereal filth, etc. – from one day to the next, with no notice and for no reason. We are a target in space, a shooting range for chance and the absurd.

Moreover, we are confined in a coffin that appears to be open and bottomless but in actual fact is closed, hermetically sealed. At most, thanks to technology and brightly-lit night skies, we are allowed to peer out of the coffin, even take a few short trips around it, but that’s all.

There is no longer any shadow of doubt, we know everything or nearly everything about ourselves and the world. We know, and we know it mathematically, that even the remotest, most tranquil oases of the world, will turn into chaos and pandemonium sooner or later. At which point life would probably only be possible at the bacterial level. This is the reality of the world in which we live.

In other words, neither do we live in the best of worlds nor can we claim a privileged place in the universe, but we are locked in a cosmic prison. In this mortal trap ( call it what you will : coffin, hole, chasm, grave, tomb, well, cemetery, it’s all the same) where we are born, grow old and die, and will do so for as long as fate and the unpredictable behaviour of our Sun allows us to, in this mortal trap one day, one fantastic, spectacular day our tragic destiny will come to an end.

We have no way out. We are condemned to be aware of our own end yet are unable to do anything about it. This is not a very pleasant or popular prospect, but the truth of the matter is that anything else is merely the idle chat of the obtuse, the blind, of dupes.

In our world the ridiculous and the grotesque are the essence and soul of every phenomenon that inhabits it, including ourselves.

The lesson? Let’s make of each second an eternity and live eternity as if it were a second.

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