Exhalation

Chiang writes with such intention and purpose that I inhale each sentence as fact, even when just a story before I constructed another world entirely. But I also believe his intention is to let us know these aren't fully different worlds, but evolutions of our world as we know it today. Different prisms maybe, alternating outcomes once one small molecule shifts out of place. Just one minuscule change can make the difference in our collective human experience even as purpose of the stories he writes remains consistent. A overlying purpose I understand to be - there is an end to everything. A lifecycle that begins with ingenuity, grows through gaining knowledge and disseminating what is learned, experiences it's height, then slowly dims as we head towards an inevitable conclusion. But that inevitable is always always meant to have a purpose (or is it? Either way it's better to believe it does). Something that we as a collective, feeling species can use to spurn new growth in the future.

All I know is I want more, and I'll hold my breath until I can exhale.