Turning Fifty in a 14 Billion Year Old Universe

Middle Age Youthful dreams of perfection Mellowing into complacency Naïve enthusiasm for life Tempering into wry amusement Outsider feelings of unbelonging Shifting to belonging on the outside Yearning for purpose Maturing into acceptance Internal, eternal conversations between young and old me: Same but different. Soured by the roads not taken, But rewarded by the chosen path well explored. Made more curious about the branches above By the ones below. Keep climbing, Keep looking down, Keep looking up. For long ago, I could only see up; One day soon, I will only gaze down.

Big Bang to Big Chill Pure Energy Pure Potential Matter over Antimatter Quantum Imperfections Seed the Galaxies Quark to Protons to the Periodic Table Complexity begets Complexity Riding the Entropy Train to the Future: Expanding, Cooling, Recombining. The beginning was boringly undifferentiated The end will be a useless mess The now is glorious