We are nothing

Cairns, Australia

Yesterday we spent the morning in the Queensland Rainforest, the oldest continuous rainforest in the world dating back 150 million years.

Last week at the Cairns Aquarium we learned about when certain ocean species emerged on the planet. From a shark presentation and the educational placards throughout the aquarium, we compiled a chronological list of ages:

• Sponges: 750 million years old

• Jellyfish: 700 million years old

• Cephalopods: 500 million years old

• Saturn’s rings: 400 million years old

• Sharks: 450 million years old

• Crocodiles: 200 million years old

• Queensland rainforest: 150 million years old

The homo erectus early humans are 1.9 million years old and homo sapiens only 200,000. The length of time humans have existed is so minute compared to the age of the earth, the number would round to zero. Cosmically speaking, our lives are nothing.

And thank god as much. My existential angst - unrest about existence or from existing - is soothed by knowing every moment of every human life would fit into one drop of the cosmic ocean of time.