Feb 13, 2005 22:16
I think worrying about whether an ending is done well is sort of meaningless if the ending is sad; it still hurts. Except for the nihilists, of course, for whom nothing ever ends because nothing ever really exists in the first place. But all you existentialists in the crowd know what I'm talking about.
I'm reminded of an old George Carlin stand up routine:
The life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating around... and you finish off as an orgasm.
It's a funny sentiment, especially for us quirky humans and our 4-leg / 2-leg / 3-leg life cycles. In a macro sense, however, it breaks down. Consider, for a moment, the universe. There's a good chance that it doesn't have enough energy to expand beyond it's own gravitational potential, so eventually it will all come hurtling back together and collapse back into singularity. In that case it'd be sort of pointless to want to live it backwards since it ends pretty much how it starts, although the optimists would probably be happy that at least we all get to die together.
There's an equally good chance that it expands outwards until the entropy level drops below a minimum cosmic threshold and everything freezes and dies. It would be tempting to want to live that backwards, but consider what would happen. The universe would unfreeze and start coming together at an exponentially increasing speed. All the planets (save it, creationists) that supported life would become infertile and all traces of civilization anywhere would be destroyed by vulcanism. Then at the very end everything would vaporize into excited sub-atomic particles that would break down into pure energy under the enormous gravitational force. Once all matter was gone the universe would shrink into a timeless, non-dimensional point and would, by definition alone, cease to exist. All meaning and beauty and reason would be gone, instantly nothing. Sure, the nihilists would probably be happy at last, but going out with a Big Bang is no way to go out.
It's the same in a micro sense. Consider, for a moment, losing a close friend. It's tempting to want to take the pain of loss up front and then just enjoy the time you have left. But would you really want to move steadily towards a time when you will mean nothing to each other? Could you bear removing each experience that endears them to you until they were just another nameless stranger on a big rock shooting away from the center? No.
Sorry, Confucious, but we don't always get to end on a high note. Sometimes we have to crash and burn and all we have left are the memories of better times. But at least we can look back and say we were there and that we had fun. Maybe some day we can be friends again. If not, thanks for everything.
Maybe I'll see you again at the end, little friend.