Existential Storytime
“He set his sights on the stars and soared across the night sky. The end.”
The father lightly closed the book and looked over at the young boy. His eyes were closed, but he didn’t have the rhythmic breathing of sleep. The father slowly stood and placed the book on the boy’s dresser. Once doing this, he heard a stirring of sheets on the bed and a quiet yawn. He looked over and noticed the boy sitting in bed with a half-drowsy look.
“Why is space dark?” asked the boy rubbing his tired eyes.
The father walked back over to the edge of the bed and sat down. “Space is very large. It’s similar to how a tiny flashlight can’t light an entire room.”
The young boy thought for a moment and then looked back at the father with a confused look. “How big is space?”
“It goes on for infinity.”
“What does infinity mean?
“It means it goes on farther than we can ever count.”
“Even more than a million gazillion?”
“Yes, even more than that.”
The boy thought about this. The father could tell his mind was racing with this concept.
“How many galaxies are there?”
“Infinite.”
“How many planets?”
“Infinite too.”
“And people?”
“About 8 billion.”
“People are not infinite?” asked the boy appearing confused.
“No, from what we know, the earth is the only place where there are humans.”
The boy paused to think this over, “So there’s infinite space, infinite galaxies, and infinite planets but not infinite humans?”
“Correct.”
The boy looked concerned with this discovery.
“Why aren’t we infinite?”
“Well, the Earth is the only place we know that has humans, and we age differently than planets and galaxies. Planets can last millions of years while we live to around one hundred if we are lucky.”
“Only one hundred!?” the boy exclaimed, astonished.
“Yeah, that’s just how nature works.”
“Well, what if I want us to live to a million years old.”
The father chuckled and patted the boy’s head. “If you found a way to do that, you would be the richest person on earth.”
“You mean space?”
The father chuckled lightly, “Yeah, come to think of it, you are right. In all of space.”
“I’ll find a way.” the boy said with strong, unwavering confidence.
Then a sudden shift went over the boy’s mind, and his face turned swiftly to his father.
“Could we go to the park with the big metal slide tomorrow?”
The father smiled and kissed the boy on the head, “Yes, we can, but you need to go to bed now.”
“Alright goodnight, Daddy.”
“Goodnight.”