"Borrowed Stardust"

Coined by the great Maria Popova, the term “borrowed stardust” sort of struck me. At first the concept brought me back to the days of Joni Mitchell and Woodstock:

We are stardust

We are golden

And we've got to get ourselves

Back to the garden

It has been a long while since I've considered “us,” humanity, as stardust. Of course we all are. But “borrowed stardust” takes the concept to a new level.

Due to its shear immensity, the massive gravitational forces that allow for dust and pebbles and stones and boulders to form larger and larger objects to the point where a heavenly body, a planet, can circle a star seems quite permanent. Yet of course it isn’t.

But are we “borrowed”? It's true that when our time is up our atoms reshuffle and mingle once again with galactic chemical evolution.

But what does this have to do with retiring in Bali, or independent living, or with anything really… ?

Our lives are, on one level, a product of the society we are born in. But if you tear away the surfaces we are a part of a vastly larger system that powers itself based on billions of years of relentless interactions.

The term borrowed also implies not owning. Even our bodies, and the very planet we call home, are in the end not ours.

And yet we acquire things and build whatever fortress we can muster in order to push off the inevitable: we ultimately expire from this temporary wetware of a life to become ultra microscopic playthings of the universe once again.

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A dayclub in Bali (Tlaga Singha) somehow sets off a cascade of cosmic thoughts.

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The main point, if there is one, is to occasionally be reminded of the flimsiness of life and to embrace our brief time here on this precious planet. Regardless of what tribe or party you belong to, our time together as members of this temporary planet, in a temporary solar system, in an extremely long yet temporary galaxy, should be recognized and celebrated.

Happy holidays and see you next year.

Later,

Neill

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