day no. 15,482: glory fades and flowers fall

"We make value judgments. We prefer one thing to another: life to death, beauty to ugliness, good to evil. Nature does not. Nature is indifferent." -- Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life

A man said to  the universe,
Sir, I exist!
Nevertheless, replied the universe,
That fact has not created in me
The slightest feeling of obligation.
-- Stephen Crane, A Man Said to the Universe

We feel a deep-rooted sense of judgment welled up inside us. We desire beauty over ugliness. We may differ over what we define as beauty, but we always argue that what we perceive as beautiful ought to be preferred. We don’t argue for the ugly. We may call ugly things “beautiful” and beautiful things “ugly,” but we know which label is ideal. We desire goodness over evil. Again, we may differ over what we define as good, but we always argue in favor of what we believe is best. We never argue that ugliness or badness is better. We argue that our idea of beauty or goodness is superior to someone else's or that our idea of the good is better than theirs.

Yet, we live in a universe of indifference. Whatever we believe to be best still dies. Whatever we desire to be praised still fades. What we see as beautiful is subject to the same blind, relentless grinding rule of rust and decay. Glory fades, flowers fall, wine fails, beauty wanes, strength decays, and nothing lasts forever except the perpetual cycle of indifference that destroys everything we delighted in, whatever that may have been.

That is the world under the sun. That is the universe if the universe is all there is -- a crapshoot of perspectives, swallowed in the teeth of time, marching on oblivious.