Charlotte

IF YOU’VE LIVED AS LONG AS I HAVE

If you’ve lived as long as I have, you’ll realize that societies are like a handful of marbles thrown against a wall. Some shatter upon impact while others bounce off and continue being whole. Others crack and the pretty insides bleed out. So as much as you humans crave security, you forget that you are inherently unstable. I suppose you’re wondering what marble you are in. You are the marble that will not only crack and shatter but will explode into a dozen bits of glass shrapnel that will maybe even hurt the one who threw you.

I suppose I’m telling you this because I feel a little despondent watching your lovely world turn to sand and ash. I remember the beginning when the wind whispered against boundless, rugged mountains and the air was electric with promise. I saw when the first of your kind appeared with eyes bright with life and hearts beating in excitement and fear. I watched as they toiled and died and killed to climb to the top of your little marble. Then you made the world after your own image and carved out your little paradise. Now I see the greed that helped you rule lead to the destruction and decay of not only your paradise but yourselves. I watch with you as mythical fires rage in the sea and devour you while floods smother your organized cities and neighborhoods.

You will forget this conversation. Because to you, there will be another morning, another day in your paradise. You humans have such a short memory. Blink once, and a century disappears. When your world cracks, it will be too late. I will watch your marble explode and roaring shrapnel spear through the velvety darkness of eons.

But that will be your end. Boundless eternity remains after.

Charlotte