The Answer We've All Been Seeking

I learned this afternoon that a comet called Comet 17P/Holmes has, within the last several days, exploded. It will, ostensibly, be visible in the northeast sky for the next several nights...maybe weeks.

When I first heard of it, I felt a little tinge of excitement: "I will be able to see an exploding comet!"

A split second later, I questioned why I was excited by that. Even if I see it, no one will care, not today, not tomorrow, not for the rest of time. It won't change me. And then I thought of a young woman in northern California, a woman I don't know, a woman who fancies herself a folk singer, but who in reality will never make it to stardom. It doesn't matter if she sees the comet, either. No one will remember her, or me, in a hundred years. We will be as important, in 100 years, to the universe as will be the grizzly bear that died in the middle of Yellowstone last night. That is, we not only won't we matter, we won't be remembered. We'll have had no lasting impact on the earth. And that won't matter any more then than it does today.

What a strange series of thoughts. But how informative, too. The answer we've all been seeking: No, we don't matter, after all.