Made in Cosmos

My brother asked me today how I’m going to save the world. He was shocked to hear that I have no such plans.

The world has been doing perfectly fine without me for billions of years. I’m sure it’s going to do perfectly fine when I’m gone. I came out of this world. I am a part of it. There’s nothing I could give or bring to the table that wasn’t already there.

Who am I to tell if what I consider as a bug in this infinitely complex, tangled, and interdependent system, isn’t in fact a critical feature, preventing much worse consequences? How will I know my actions are a net positive, compared with the previous state?

I wanted to save the world ever since I remember. Then I realized it was a cope, a way of running away from my own problems. Now I know I can neither save myself nor the world.

And that’s totally fine! Neither me nor the world needs saving.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to give up, curl up in the corner, and do nothing. Quite the contrary, now that I feel no obligation to carry the world on my shoulders, I’m free to tune in, listen, and explore what excites me. I don’t have the slightest idea what the next such thing could be.

But I’m sure that if I keep exploring, the right opportunities will show up just at the right time.

They always do.