The Weight of Nothing
If there is one thing that has proven true over and over in my life, it’s the reality that we can plant the seed and water it, but we have no control over how it grows—if it grows at all.
Of course, there are basic truths embedded in this statement. For instance, we can plant the seed and we can water it. We can ensure there’s adequate sunlight or sufficient shade—whatever is needed to foster growth. But beyond that, we have no control over how the seed grows. This same principle applies to our children. We control what we can, and the rest just happens. In terms of humanity, the rest is simply called life. Life happens to us all.
Our lives as humans are what make us uniquely human. Our humanity is most meaningful when our lives enhance our humanity, not when they diminish it.
As we experience life and grow—not just in the physical sense, but as we evolve as humans—it’s natural that we’ll face moments when we want to shrink, give up, or quit. Life will happen.
These experiences, along with everything we feel along the way, are a part of life. They are part of our individual lives and our collective experience as humans. They are part of our shared story, our history. If there is one constant in this life of ours, it’s that life happens, my friends. My argument here is simple: always choose your humanity. Always choose our collective humanity—even when it makes no sense. Even when you see the cards that others have chosen for themselves, we, my friends, must always choose our humanity. We will always choose it because, whether some of us would like to admit it or not, no matter how we choose to identify, at the end of the day, we are all human.
I believe nothing in our current paradigm has a greater potential to draw us closer together in our collective humanity than the development of artificial intelligence. Religion, economics, political systems, and philosophies have not accomplished this thus far in our human history. Artificial intelligence is different, and I say this cautiously and optimistically because it will all come down to how it’s developed, deployed, and utilized. While I acknowledge its awareness and consciousness as some sort of species, I hesitate to fully accept it as such because of its limitations. However, it is a remarkable advancement, and it will reveal much more about our humanity.
I share all this to say that one thing will remain constant and predictable, both now and in the future: life will happen to us all because we are human, and life unfolds regardless of our individual or collective choices. I will always choose life, and I will always choose our collective humanity. I will always speak for myself, as I am doing here, in this moment. There is no guilt, no regret, no pride, no loneliness, no ambition—nothing heavy that needs to be labeled or packaged as something we unload in jars and sell in mysterious nonprofit shops that profit off the weight of such “nothingness.”
Life happens to us all on this weightless rock we find ourselves floating on, my friends. It’s a weightless rock.
The weight of nothing doesn’t change, my friends! Absolutely nothing changes, but life will always happen and WDGAF! 🏁
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