Sunset, Them and Us

I have always loved the sunset. Not that watching the sun rise above the horizon makes my heart grow fonder any less, but still, sunrise- even with full of promise, even with all its dopamine surged freshness could never match the solace I found in watching the sun go down the horizon. What is it with sunset that even with fatigue of the entire day etched in every square inch of the body, even without the assurance of light radiating from the orange ball of fire that fuels up the entire life of this pale blue dot, even without knowing whether I will live long enough to see it rise above the horizon the next day, this heart craves to experience more and more sunsets? 

I wonder this- about my love for sunset-sitting in the balcony with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in my hand, gazing at the orange ball getting more and more red, getting nearer and nearer to the horizon, losing its bottom part- becoming a semicircle and then a quarter and just like that gradually melting into the horizon like butter in an ember. And then I see flocks of birds swaying above at the sky- making geometrical patterns as they fly but themselves unaware of the beauty they create, as dusk approaches. And the wonder all comes down to me like an epiphany. Perhaps, my love for the sunsets has got to do with birds returning to their nests-carrying food to feed their children and the scarcely distinguishable joy in the return of parent of every animal- including us humans- to their respective homes.  

Home is another word, more than a word a feeling- that sends the rush of inexpressible comfort down the spine! And it's after sunset that animals find their respective homes! The places, the beings they find shelter in. I get reminded of a sentence that I came across in some book I read, 'It is in the shelter of each other that people live'. Not just us people, but also them- the animals. It is however, not quite different between them and us. And perhaps it is foolish to separate 'us' from 'them', to think for us on different terms than 'them'. Only that the nature favoured us more during the course of evolution- to have better privileges than them. Intelligence- that fostered wonders for us. And it hasn't changed much for them. Only that some of them are now domesticated by us. Them- the wild and us- the civilized. 

But what if, this privilege that we think we are blessed with is nothing but vain? Perhaps, all our efforts on earth will have returned to dust some day, because we know that we are the greatest threats to ourselves and everything around us, that the sun will engulf the only earth we will ever have and once that happens, there might never be the sound of life in the great cosmic dark. But as long as there is tomorrow, there is always hope and so long as there is hope, there always remains a possibility. Uncertainty can as well, at some rare moments, provide comfort. Especially at times when there is no hope. 

What if there were no significance of all that we do as humans, not any more than the indifference, the aloofness of the wild? Would that keep us away from doing all that we do and aim to do? Perhaps no. Perhaps, the exploratory clockwork system hard wired in our brain through millions of years of evolution knows no bounds. Perhaps, there is no apparent purpose, no any divine cosmic meaning for our existence. We are the ones who have given meaning to everything. Us- weaving the elusive web of meanings, defying even the best of skills of spiders and encompassing in between the space of webs-all possible aspects of life and everything that's not life. Us- trying to decipher the complexity of the nature we are surrounded by.

But, amid all the complexity that surrounds us, are we ever, in a lifetime as a species, going to realize this one simple thing that this earth- the pale blue dot- belongs to them just as much as it does to us? That they are the earthlings just as much as we are?