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“Lay down on your back,” she said. “Let’s pretend that we’re floating through deep space.”

“Once we were,” he said.

“When we were stardust,” she surmised.

“Time, death, and stardust.”

Those three were our birthright.” She noted, “Death chose the pointed from the pointless. Death sifted the best from the rest.”

“But it took a lot of time,” he added. “Since death was the only evaluator, it took eons and ages of time for us to evolve from stardust into humans.”

“Time, death, and stardust. They write our epitaph as well as our birthright,” she noted.

“Yes, they do. When our time expires, death will come, and only dust will be left.”

“From time and death and dust we came, and to this, that, and thus we must return.”

“Born from stardust, nourished by sunlight, I’ve filled my cup with wonders of delight.”

“Life is a treasure, a radiant gem, a light that I’ll never see again.”

She said “Let me elaborate and tell you about our true colors, our spirits. We are the Eternal Smile of Being, the Joy of the Universe’s Creation! In us the Cosmos has come alive and has evolved into us from primordial matter and energy. We have arrived! We are the Cosmos itself. We ARE the Universe—life from Stardust!

“We live but for one of Eternity’s heartbeats, borrowing Life from Death for just a while. All that we are we owe to Time, Death, and Stars. Truly, from the Stars cometh our help, and much more. The Stars are the creators of matter and energy. Within a Star’s heart, matter transforms itself and gives energy—this is why the Stars shine! Death is the ultimate evaluator and the director of all evolutionary progress. Over eons upon eons, Death selects the wise from the silly; Death chooses the useful from the useless, but, it takes Time. It is this long yardstick that sticks in our throat when we try to contemplate it.

“However, in the case of gene mutation itself, this moves along quickly, once it happens from cosmic rays or whatever, for most gene mutations are bad and lead to instant death.

“Anyway, for what seemed like Forever, our sleepless spirits have waited to catch light, life, and delight from Heaven’s smile. Finally, we are so lucky and we live. We stand atop the pinnacle of Nature’s tireless toil which has at last brought forth our souls from that black and endless eternal deep. What a joy to Be!

“Blake said ‘In what far and fiery depths of space burnt the fire of your Spirit? In what distant Stars was born the gleam in your eye?’ Know it well, for one day Death will ask you “What did you do all of your life?”. But, for now we are alive. Our mind and senses interpret and distort the one Reality into the colors and sensations of the phenomenal world. We can become either rainbows or ugly stains! Our minds, like Shelley’s prisms of many-colored glass, strain this white Radiance of Eternity into our life—until Death tramples us—and back we go to stardust after relentless time has wasted us away. Yes, our creators of Time, Death, and Stardust must also write our epitaph; they devour us in order to return that life-dream which was lent to us. But, here we are now, and perhaps we come to know that the simpler things in life are still the best: A glass of water from the well in the morning; to love, laugh, and sing with family and friends. And so we live out our lives with honor and love, kindness and generosity—these are our true colors. Life for the sake of life! Good for good’s sake! Enjoying everyone and everything and every season.

“Many think that they are more important than they really are, that they deserve some reward of a divine destiny in Heaven where their every whim, wish, and fancy can be fulfilled for all of time, forever and ever. Well, to me, such endless satisfaction and pleasure sounds really rather prideful, wishful, even decadent. The ultimate humility is, I think, for us to realize that we are no more than electrochemical organisms, that we, too, are part of nature. Are we quite lucky and fancy organisms? Oh, yes. Are we specially created by a Master? Oh, no. We are the embodiment of the Cosmos and are ever the results of natural laws of Physics and Chemistry. Death may be forever, but man, with his exaggerated view of self-importance, and, not wishing to see a final end to his glorious life—and I can hardly blame him—desperately grasps for immortality’s promise. For me, I will continue to catch life’s joy and smile and will bathe in the light of its constant sunrise. On my last night on this Earth I will not be haunted by regret when the Sleep of Death comes to take me to Corruption’s dim dwelling place—for I will know that I lived for color and smile.

“And what of the Stars? They remain, as Eternity’s Love-lamps, which even the fathomless night cannot quench. Perhaps one day, at the end of forever, the Stars too will die and grow cold when Time conquers all; but, as long as they live they will shine and radiate the hues that paint the colors of our ashes reborn again on the phoenix wings of Time.”

(Evolution stretched over billions over years, from the simple to the complex—it’s hard to fathom how long this time was.)