DEATH, THE ARTIST

Entropy pushes and pulls on the fabric of existence. Fleshy beings watch hopelessly in a pool of bacteria accumulating some atomic abundance, like the mold which thrives in places kept just the right temperature for decompositional growth.

Is there a price to pay for life? Who are we to place value on systems of infinite complexity, simply because we are able to contemplate them with profound moral and ethical insight? Such a gift; the calculators of reality, yet few gaze into the mirror in awe of the miraculous. Do we fear the truth that sparkles in the colorful iris of a beautiful being, so ashamed of it we cannot stare for too long without feeling awkward, inferior, and bashful? The human is nervous and anxious, but of what?

Death once told me that Life was nothing more than a good piece of art. My reaction was to laugh doubtfully. Death proceeded to lift the cowl of darkness shrouding its unseen face, and I lost myself in the void which was its vision. Emptiness consumed my mind in a way I had never known. It was a lack of experience in all forms; complete and total nothingness. Death spoke in a tone that tore through my soul, ripping it to shreds, so I sank into cessation.

“Now do you understand the truth behind your flesh? Everything is this, in it’s purest form. Absoluteness. There is no end, no start, no lines to follow as if they would lead to somewhere meaningful. Your concept of harmony causes dissonance. Your belief in good creates evil. Why must you have all these things? What do things matter? The reality you decide to create through spiritual attachment and cognitive analysis is an intricate web of things, and you get easily bored! What a waste of space.

See, your organization of chaos will get you nowhere. Everything must end, and you are very good at speeding this process, as a species that is, but you fear to acknowledge this fact. You are a child of chaos, destined to create things, things which add vibration and frequency. Oh, don’t you see it my child? You are energy wound up in a system of complexity so small and insignificant that it makes you think big! You are very important to this whole process. You keep it going. The small lives are always asking questions, like why, how; sometimes I reminisce on the grand adventures of Life. No matter, you’ve seen the truth that is your soul.”

Death replaced the ominous veil over its hollow skull.

“If you walk into the light, you will be endowed with the eternal flame of the stars, burning bright to shine revelation upon the unknown. This does not promise anything. There will be no stability, only a constant tug in opposite directions. Your light will always create a shadow, and your shadow will always block other light. This is chaos. The never ending struggle for existence is the most beautiful display of energy I have witnessed throughout my Awakening. Life truly is a masterpiece, the finest I have ever had the opportunity to portray. The secret to it’s beauty is detail. Now, you can be splattered across the vastness of existence in these balls of energy, or choose to sink into the surplus to be lost in eternity.” I felt I had a choice between Life and Death, or was it between hope and truth?

I thought about it for a moment.

“You have chosen then. Thinking will get you nowhere. It seeks to complicate the simple and simplify the complicated. You are one of the finer tones. I simply can’t waste such a wonderful chance at dabbing your detail into the darkness. A vivid soul can mix up the picture in glorious ways. Come, my child. Let us paint.”