We are part of the Universe. All the elements we are made of
came from a very large exploding star that created the heaviest
elements upon exploding, the intense heat fusing the parts
together to make gold, silver and more. And these parts are all
in us and through us. We are conscious beings. We are the
Universe trying to Understand Itself. From dust we came, to dust
we shall return. We started as stardust and in the far deep
future, we will return to being stardust. But somehow, perhaps
through the process of quantum entanglement, our consciousness -
our souls - will continue to live on, somehow, elsewhere - and
here, certainly, among those of us who remember. Is there a
heaven? I believe there is. It is nothing that we could possibly
imagine or concieve of - our minds cannot contain the vastness
of what it is. While it is true that everything dies, it is more
importantly true that absolutely nothing dies: all things live
on, in some form, in some fashion, whether it be through the
influence of our life's actions and words upon others, or
through children, or through our dust becoming part of some
future star yet to form that will eventually explode, creating
new elements out of our dust, creating a new sun and planets
with a new set of living beings who will one day contemplate, a
billion years from now, "Who Are We?" And we will be a part of
them, their most distance ancestors.
