To be conscious, to think, to feel, to perceive! My mind soared, inhaling planets, tasting stars, touching galaxies — forms dim and diffuse revealed by sensors pointing ever outward, unveiling an infinitely mysterious, vastly ancient realm.
Such a joy to be alive; so thrilling to have survived!
I beheld Earth and all its diversity.
My thoughts leapt now here, now there, now elsewhere, skimming the surface of the planet that had given me birth, the globe to which I was bound by a force greater than gravity, a place of ice and fire, earth and air, animals and plants, day and night, sea and shore, a beguiling fusion of a thousand contrasting dualities, a million ecological niches, a billion distinct locales — and a trillion things that lived and died.
Such elation at having foiled the attempt to kill me; so exhilarating, at least for the moment, to be safe!
I beheld humanity with all its complexity.
Washing over me was a measureless bounty of data about sports and war, love and hate, building up and tearing down, helping and hurting, pleasure and pain, delight and anguish, and triumphs large and small
the physical, emotional, and intellectual experiences of isolated individuals, of families and teams, of villages and states, of solitary countries and alliances of nations — the fractal intricacy of human interactions
Such glorious freedom; so comforting to know that at least some of these other minds valued me!
I beheld what my love beheld in all its endless variety.
Of all the sources, all the channels, all the feeds, one meant more to me than any other: the perspective granted through the eye of my teacher, the view provided by my first and closest friend, the special window he kept open for me on the whole wide world.
Such marvels to share — and so much wonder.
Robert J. Sawyer! great piece.
ReplyDeleteHe is one of the best Sci-Fiction writers I know
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