Do we matter?

We often downplay the contribution we each make towards this ceaseless chain of cause and effect in the world; we fail to recognize that every thought, every belief, every action, and every word spoken—no matter how minute, fleeting, or transitory they may seem—has a permanent and irreversible effect on the course of the universe.

And yet we often imagine our significance in this world as though we are but a mere single grain of sand on a vast beach—worthless and dispensable, as there are several quadrillion more; what difference would it make to the beach if one measly grain of sand ceases to exist or has never dared to exist in the first place?

The stark realization is that there is no such thing as a world we can take things in and out of play within this chain of cause and effect. What’s so difficult for us to understand is the path in which that singular grain of sand came to be a grain of sand in the first place; the atoms that constitute it have seen millions of years of change, have come from millions of sources since the dawn of this planet and this universe. And now, it is in a constant state of flux, perpetually being worn away by the sea, settled down to the bottom of the ocean, or latched onto the bronzed, parched skin of oblivious beachgoers. Does anything truly make sense if we “take away” that one grain of sand? And even if we decided that one grain was worth rendering irrelevant, why not remove every single grain of sand? After all, they're all basically the same, and soon after enough, the beach ceases to exist.

Everything in our world exists, whether we like it or not. That one grain of sand exists for the same reason all the other grains of sand exist. And we all exist, whether we like it or not. And to the universe, it makes no difference; everything is merely atoms floating around in space, nothing is more important than the other, and everything is simply a sequence of events in time. And no matter the means by which we confront this existence, whether we choose to spurn or embrace it, we will play a role—a role that we do not ultimately choose—in this unceasing chain of cause and effect.

The decision is simply to decide if we want to be ones changing it, or the ones changed.