The Triviality

A companion piece to The Expanse. Both are, in a way, companions to Only Fools ..., since they all demand one thing of the reader or listener: accept that you are enough, that this is enough, that we all matter. Enjoy or don't. It's your call, dear heart.

In life, dear heart, it is said that there are no certainties save death and taxes. It is further supposed that without greed, there would be little need for taxes, and as such the only true guarantee you can expect and appreciate is death. Indeed there are others still, who would assure you that even death itself may be overcome, given the proper combination of alchemy, nutrition, luck, and religion. And who am I to say they are wrong?

There is one thing I can assure you, dear heart, beyond any other half or whole truth that the world would attempt to convince you. And if I could impress upon you one thing to know and believe in the deepest core of your being, in a place where it could never be erased, I wish you would understand this one thing.

You matter.

There is a corollary to this one truth that you should have surmised before I finished my breath. And in the event you did not, I need to make it clear, for everyone deserves to understand this one thing and all it entails.

You matter. Your life matters. Your joy matters. Your pain matters.

It is intrinsic to existence that you – beyond any rational or reasonable measure, above all further considerations – matter simply by virtue of your standing here before me. Dear heart, you must know when I am finished that your value is inherent, internal, inviolable. And there is nothing or no one who could possibly change that.

If there is creator, they certainly would not have created without purpose. And if there is not a creator, then the impact you have on your people, and the residual impact they would have on their people, and the extended impacts beyond that, they are all what you were here for! And it is for that reason, dear heart, that we should not now or ever find ourselves questioning that one eternal and important truth.

You matter. I matter. Each and every one of us matters! And it is in our miraculous insignificance that we are raised so high above ourselves. Our reach is immense and beautiful, and nothing can take that from us! Nothing can take that from you, dear heart!

The greatest divinity in all of creation, if truly there is a creation, is us. It is our lives. It is what we choose to do, to love, to be in the face of what may or may not be. If there is nothing beyond, then at least we know we lived, dear heart. And at least we will have left a mark, however minuscule we believe it to be, on those we leave behind.

It may be that all will die, and when they do, they go alone. And it may be that greed and taxes cannot be avoided. But that does not take from us the meaning that our mere existence imparts to us.

We, dear heart, are everything.