The Inevitable Indifference of Nature

Time: Earth’s Most Valuable Resource

E. Y. Nam

In the midst of events that tend to happen all around us, people often quote that “time flies so fast”. Of course, you never realise time is truly ‘flying’ until the moment is completely over. Sure, you could count your second, and then count the minutes to go by until the end of school, but once these numbers start getting out of hand, it becomes difficult to place any value onto them. For example, a national park guide once told me the rocks in its cave were a billion years old, and I just nodded, because no one really appreciates a billion. A billion dollars, a billion people, a billion years; we are just unable to comprehend or hold any importance towards something unimaginably large.

But here’s one way to appreciate it. Think about this: It takes 11 days to count to a million. On the other hand, it would take 31 years to count to one billion. You’d be like 47 years old if you started counting now (without bathroom breaks). Personally, I can’t imagine how long that count would be. Whilst I’m counting to one billion, I would have finished school, gone to uni, worked. I’m not able to guess what might happen during the 30 years. One thing I know for sure though is that thirty years would not be meaningless. Because time is a borrowed abstract, you come here to be a part of what was always there, and when you leave it will still be there. It’ll go on without a single appreciation for you. There’s nothing sympathetic or attractive about rocks, they’re nothing. And like rocks, time doesn’t care about you, quite frankly it doesn’t even not care about you, it doesn’t do anything for you, it’s just… there. It just always was, and is, and will be and you and your dirty dishes and everything else you’re concerned with are… just there.

We put meaning onto things that don’t mean anything, it’s a very natural human instinct, and we do it because we cannot stand the indifference of nature. We even put pictures of nature on our calendars as if it had just finished college or something. It is inevitably a very lopsided relationship: we give meaning to nature because life is simply too boring to exist without it.

Rocks don’t mean anything. This day doesn’t mean anything. Nor does everything have to be a metaphor to something else. Animal Farm could’ve really just been about animals. You don’t always have to ‘figure it out’.

Because sometimes, it’s just a beautiful day. And if you can run with that, everything will be okay.

Time flies pretty fast, so make sure to stop and look around every once in a while, otherwise you might miss its majestic indifference.