Two Hundred and Seventy Eight

Why is there something rather than nothing? is the question scientists and philosophers supposedly ask themselves.  Is something better than nothing? is the question I ask myself.  I ask it because I am a thing, a self.

I must ask it because when every other desire is gone, even the desire to live, the desire to know why we live remains.  Asking questions seems to give our lives purpose   But how much can we know when life is all we know?  Things seem to be a small part of a universe that’s mostly nothing, and the things we call living are even smaller.  We may be the only living things that ask why we’re living. Obviously this universe doesn’t exist for us, as we once imagined.  Just as obviously, we don't exist for it.

Most of us move through life as dreamers do through their dreams, unaware that we’re chasing creatures of our imagination, that we are ourselves such creatures.  If something's better than nothing, it's not this thing that asks questions we can't answer.  Better not to ask.  Better not to live.