Min-Max

A story about the biggest events and the smallest sentences.

A bang. The big one. No, bigger. Bigger. The biggest. Yes, that one. Gases and galaxies exploding. Expanding. Exhilarating. Star stuff colliding, crashing, cooling. Chance encounters. Quarks congregating, coalescing. Primordial soup enriching itself. Depth of flavor developing. Eons of evolution in milliseconds. This is the beginning. Start here. We have already passed go.

Atoms! We need atoms. But the basics remain complex. The universe figuring itself out. Still in that awkward phase. Slamming doors, refusing photographs. Come on, pull yourself together. So, it does. It shrugs together nucleons. It’s getting there. It’s learning to love radiation. It’s learning to love itself.

Everything still expanding. Always expanding. Horizons. Ideas. Concepts. Time invents itself, rushes onward. Gravity emerges shy but strengthening. It tussles with radiation. Titans of physics like toddlers. They grab at everything. They scream, “mine!” Radiation retreats, sniffling. Gravity beats its chest, triumphant.

Meanwhile, light charges outward. Photons rush ahead, heedless, giddy. These are the boisterous boys. Unruly. Curious. They push at boundaries. They bully electrons, shove neutrons. Order still awaits.

But now, we are moving. Now, the universe matures. It shapes ideas of itself. It grows aspirations. It makes plans. It executes. Atoms! It forgot about atoms. It must have them. So: no more random shoving. It brings order to itself. Neutrons. Electrons. Protons. It arranges them just so. But why stop there? Hydrogen, say hello to oxygen. A flirt of neutrons. A meet-cute of nuclei. Molecules test the water. Water tests itself.

Then: matter in a rush. Matter shoving aside light. Radiation long forgotten. Even gravity subservient. A new era. But the universe still moody. The universe in goth makeup. Dark matter! We shall have dark matter. Everything invisible. Everything black. Everything kohl beneath the eyes.

But chaos cannot reign forever. Order keeps seeping in. Filaments of matter entangle, ensnare. Atoms arrange each other. Interactions become self-sustaining. A vacuum establishes boundaries. Agreements are reached. Everyone will be mature. Everyone will be sensible. Coexistence is possible.

Stars now. Remember when atoms were difficult? Now we have stars. Light and light and light. Self-sustaining cataclysms. Ordinary matter organized. Dark matter diffuse. Dark matter strung out. Become the necklace chain. Stars shimmer upon it. The invention of beauty.

Order won’t stop there. So, now: black holes. Now, quasars. Now, white dwarves. Red dwarves. Now, spiral galaxies. And lenticular. And elliptical. And ring. And diffuse. And irregular. And everything. Everywhere. All of it. It is becoming. It is becoming more. And more. Matter and gravity collaborate. They are artists. They are inventors. They are creative. They are brilliant. It is all happening. Now and forever.

A change of focus. A planet has emerged. Gas and dust coagulating. Spinning. Merging. Asteroids incorporated. An old story. Its result: frothing magma. Miniscule. Unimportant. It is similar to millions. Volcanoes churn. Gases spume. An atmosphere aggregates. We’ve seen all this before.

And yet. And yet. Asteroids bombard this planet. Radiation decays. It becomes molten. Heat blooms. Gases froth. Uninhabitable. Inhospitable. Matter as rage. Rage as an evolutionary force. Another planet strikes a blow. A moon breaks away. Anger and violence. This is how it starts.

But order keeps seeping in. Everything is expanding. The universe’s clutter diminishes. Asteroids miss. The planet cools. We have a crust now. Stability steps experimentally onstage. Tests the water. Wait, we need water. Vapor first. Everything is still cooling. Everything is settling down. Carefully, carefully. Gently, gently. Is this ok? Will this work? Let’s bring the temperature down. Bring the water down. Let it settle. Let it get its bearings. Welcome. Welcome. Why not stay awhile?

So, water does. Order seeps in. Things coalesce. They congregate. Water starts with droplets. It builds from there. What about puddles? What about lakes? What about oceans? What about crashing tides? Sea spray? Craggy cliffs? What about erosion? What about sand between toes?

Wait... toes? We don’t have toes yet.

So, what about life?

Single cells. Pinpricks of mortality adrift. A prokaryote proletariat manifests. It builds. It mounts. Oceans teem with infinitesimal life. It cannot be contained. No single cell is enough. Things coalesce. They congregate. Cell meets cell. Around them, continents amass. Land awaits. Plants bloom. Leaves unfurl. Stalks stretch.

In the oceans, life evolves. Forget sunlight. Let’s devour. Let’s metabolize. Let’s see where that goes. Such places! Spines and eyeballs, oh my. Flippers and fins and scales. Underwater, life invents. It experiments. It fails. It chews upon itself. It shits out its rejects. It chases blind alleys. It believes bigger is better. It scales up. The oceans boil with life. Titans flounder. And then: life ejected. Life spat out by spume. Life upon land’s shores.

Life lies there panting. Life pathetic and flaccid. Life squirming in the mud. Is this really it? Is this apotheosis? No. No! Life rejects such claims. Life is only getting started. Onward and upward. Bigger and better. And smaller and worse. And every direction. And every eventuality. Give me shells. Give me claws. Give me teeth. Give me wings and feathers. Give me live young. Give me lactation. Give me duck bills. Give me everything.

Almost at... not the end. The now. The here. The us. Man awaits his moment. When will evolution reveal us? Give me frontal lobes. Bigger is better. Give me opposable thumbs. Bring me down from trees. Make me stand upright. Make me shave. Make me build. Make me subjugate nature. Make me invent deities. Make me raise temples. Raise hell. Raise my fists against myself. Make me make war.

A geological instant. A flash in eon’s pan. This is us. Here. Now. A bare blink of existence. And we’ve made a mess. And we’ve made beauty. And we’ve warred between both. We’re unaware of what’s next. What chaos we might cause. What gorgeous mistakes we’ll make. What will come after us. We’re stumbling blindly. We may fall.

But order keeps seeping in. Things congregate. Things coalesce. Everything expands.

Towards hope.