💾 Archived View for tilde.club › ~verdantmoss › last-meeting.gmi captured on 2024-08-18 at 17:50:34. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

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one day we will meet for the last time

One day we will meet for the last time. Likely, we will not know it; we will laugh and joke and raise our glasses. And then, as if we had never met, we will never again glance each others visage. It's inevitable, of course - all things will come to their end - and yet it feels strange to admit it. Think about that distant friend you intend to meet up with one day. Think about those friends you feel yourself slowly drifting away from. Gods, I know I have those. Have I already seen them for the final time? For some, I might even be able to count the number of times I will see them again on my hands. A digit for every interaction I might have with a person for the rest of our lives. Isn't that a strange thought?

I think sometimes about the people that I likely have seen for the final time. Old friends from school days. What was that final interaction like? I can't even recall. Relationships slipped through my fingers like sand. What will it be like for the people that I know now? Will I recall, in my old age, what that final interaction looked like? A final send-off for the rest of our tragically short lives. Will they recall it? How many hours spent in each others company will be drawn to their close without us even knowing?

The crushing finality of our short and fragile lives is a burden borne by every member of humanity. It is part of us, a burden that I will likely never live to see eased. Some time after that final meeting, the both of us will be snuffed out. Our bodies, that physical artefact of our existence, will rot away to nothing. From dust we are, and from dust we will all return.

last updated: 2023-03-02