Recently, I’ve been in a bit of a thirsty brain mood. I’m sure it’s the awakening spring affecting me, demanding new perspectives, new knowledge. So, I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries of late. Since I absolutely adore math, one of them was Jonathan Halperin’s A Trip to Infinity. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about an hour and twenty minutes of fascinating animations, mathematical explanations, and scientist and mathematician interviews all exploring the concept of infinity.

Personally, I find infinity to be extremely comforting and beautiful. I love the idea of how big things can really get, how expansive, how endless, how… well, infinite. I think it’s absolutely wonderful to think about how small we are compared to infinity. All of mankind, all life on earth, all of our solar system, even our galaxy. And, especially, how short our time is in the face of the universe.

A Trip to Infinity explains a concept called the ‘apple in a box’ theory. Essentially, the gist is that if an apple was left in an indestructible box for billions and billions of years, it would decompose and reform over and over again in infinite patterns. Its particles would go through every possible state that they could, and eventually return to the original apple. This idea helps us to grasp the concept of infinite possibilities given infinite time.

I think this ties in very well to the multiverse theory (which existed long before it was popularized by comic books). As you probably know, it describes a hypothetical group of multiple universes said to comprise everything that exists. It’s kind of a butterfly effect, with some schools of thought dictating that every single event or decision ever made will create a new timeline and a new branch of the multiverse. It’s just like the apple in a box! 

From the perspective of infinity, the multiverse theory makes perfect sense. And as outlandish as it might seem, I like to believe it’s true; it’s probably the closest to the concept of an afterlife I believe in. It’s a comfort to think that even though there isn’t time for me to do everything, there are all these wonderful splinter versions of me experiencing all sorts of things I might never have the chance to. And on the other side of the coin, there are many things I count myself lucky not to have in my life that another version of me might experience.

So what gives? Does it all matter or does nothing matter? Is my time on the earth mind-shatteringly short in the eye of infinity? Or am I everything, everywhere, through the infinity of the multiverse?

I say both.

Even through infinite time and infinite space, somehow, someway, there is still The End. That was probably my favorite part of the film–confronting mortality. The certainty of death and the inevitability of impermanence are the absolute core of my outlook on life and moral thought philosophy. As I’ve said before, knowing everything ends makes all pain more tolerable, and every beautiful moment so much more precious.

Looking into the eye of infinity, our lifetimes are astonishingly short. The only thing we can do is love and learn and grow and connect–that’s the whole meaning of life. Not isolating yourself and succumbing to the internet, not working your life away supporting systems and ideas that don’t mean anything. Life is too short to put up with that nonsense! 

Be honest, love abundantly, respect yourself, stand up for yourself, honor your core values, listen to other people, be yourself no matter what, and do what you want! There really isn’t enough time for anything else.