The Burden of Enlightenment

Contributor: Jake Johnson

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So much time. So much time, so much time.

David sat in his study and pondered the universe. At some point it would go on forever, without him. He wanted to live forever, like so many men before him, but he couldn’t even fill a day with anything meaningful.

Eternity was the most frightening thing he could imagine.

Outside moved the ordinary people- farmers and workers. None of them would have to bear the cross of the philosopher, of the thinking man. This deep solitude, demonstrating hope, comfort and assurance as a trio of traitors against the mind. Those people out there were lucky: their deaths could sneak up on them, and take them quietly.

David thought of centuries beyond his own: a twentieth, a twenty-first, and a twenty-second. If technology improved, and the common man worked less and less, would the world enter a fugue of contemplation? Or would it divert itself, by any means necessary, trying to keep its sanity?

He pondered this question for a long time, and eventually noticed a group of men carrying timber for some project. Without hesitation, and in the hopes of losing himself, he put on a coat and went outside to help them.


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Jake Johnson is a teenaged writer and editor with a promising future as a world-traveling starving artist. For the time being, he's doing his best to get a head start in the world of writing.
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