Expansion

Since the beginning of time and space as we know it, our universe has been in a constant state of expansion. The farthest reaches of our infinite physical realm are always reaching farther into infinity, and recent findings show that the rate of this expansion is increasing. Even expansion is expanding.

So, if the universe is expanding exponentially, getting pulled apart by dark energy, racing faster toward entropy and heat-death, is the same happening to us?

Endless expansion seems as natural as day passing into night and breaking again into day. But at what cost?

If a business is like the Sun, then someday it will expand so much that it will engulf and destroy the bodies that rely on it.

If each of us is like a galaxy, then we are drifting farther apart and out of reach from one another.

If our bodies are like the universe, then we will grow and grow until our everything becomes nothing.

Expansion is essential; without it we may not exist. It may simply be part of the Grand Nature of Things to grow up and out; to reach and grow and expand. It may simply be The Way to expand endlessly into entropy, but lately I feel the growing pains.

Existence equals expansion, but lately I wonder if we have it within us to behave differently than our universe.

We are living in the era of post-everything: postmodern, post-pandemic, post-traumatic stress, postscript, postmortem and post- it all online for all to see.

I wonder what it will be like post-now. I wonder if expansion will ever slow on any level, and I wonder if that will be to our benefit.

I wonder if counteracting a force of nature so fundamental will prove integral to our survival.

We are finite like everything else. We cannot stop expansion, and someday everything will become nothing.

But somehow, despite all the expansion and chaos of the universe, we’re here. Earth is here, and our corner of the cosmos exists in relative peace. 

I wonder if we can find this peace amid our expansion. I wonder if we can expand sustainably, at least for a time. I wonder if we can expand both inward and outward, and do so without losing touch with one another, with ourselves, with what’s important.

What lies beyond the edge of the universe? Toward what are we expanding? What is the final frontier anyways?

I hope we can control our expansion. Direct it, shape it, slow it where need be, and sustain it where it benefits us. I hope we can find that golden age of cosmic peace and allow our celestial bodies to flourish with life.