Cosmic Joke

Existence, that is.  (Cue Laugh track).  It is marvelous that I am a sentient being and can delight in the wonders of the universe that I am both swimming in and part of.  However, as I look at the inevitable from the prospective of a 52 year old, it becomes more imperative to deal with the Cosmic Joke being played on us all.  The meaning we give life, in our imagination or in our daily activities, evaporates when I reflect on the cosmic structure and its absence of promise.  I will die along with my sentience and the cosmos will hardly shrug.  The universe in universally indifferent.  I know this is anthropomorphic, but we have no other perspective.  The universe would laugh at the thought of the universe laughing.  "Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night", and all acquiesce to the physical night that awaits us.  No sleep, no dreams, no God, no ghosts, no heaven, no earth.  Nothing but the atomic lattice from which we sprung; unknowing, unconscious.


And then, how do I proceed?  The eternal footman will hold my coat and snicker, but I will not be afraid.   After the tea and cakes and ices I will laugh also.  With apologies to Prufrock, it will have been worth it, after the cups, the marmalade, the tea, when the burden of the meaning of life is cast off like a shawl.  I can look at the appearance of life and see the life source, and laugh the laugh of the universe unveiled.