Short Stories to Captivate

Center

Aren't we all just a step away from losing our minds? We saunter through life proud, hurt, and invincible. We never say things we don't mean, we only regret hurting those we care about. We are rude and brash, the smartest, and most unique. We are all going to become what we dream, bigger and better, if only in time, so what does today matter? What does tomorrow matter, until I am older?

We, as a race, come to conclusions, we state facts as if we know the truth, but we're so small. We are the center of everything, the beginning is when we are born, the end is when we die, and nothing goes on after that or ever went on before. Our parents were only born to have and raise us, and the universe revolves around us as children. But how can a universe continue to exist with so many centers?

The person next to you at the train station is the center. The person you catch eyes with on the street is the center. Everyone you've ever met is the center of the universe. We are all so prideful, so sinful, and yet we brush it all off and live everyday the same.

Maybe for a moment, a grain of sand in the hourglass, we will remember. Our small view of the world will pan out to reveal the size of the world, and we remember that we aren't the only center of the universe. But in the end, this small enlightenment doesn't last, or even impress upon us. We continue as we had before as if nothing were ever different.

We say mean and hurtful things to other people. We say things before we can think of the consequences; this is where we fail. We spend all of our lives impacting others, but we never give it so much as a single thought. We say kind things, that help to stabilize each other. We say horrible things that push others into dark and dangerous places.

There is a line that we stand by, the line that keeps us who we are, respectfully, and keeps us sane. We jerk each other around, pushing or pulling everyone else further from or closer to this invisible line. All without a second thought. How long can we all go on like this, inflicting a variety of emotions on each other, almost as if we are all fighting. One big game of tug-of-war.

It's all one big cage match. We fight to change and be better. Or we fight to stay ourselves. We fight for our futures, or for others. Every move we make is an attack, but in the end none of us ever make it out. But to lay down, to stop fighting, makes no sense at all. To let yourself be washed away is cowardly. To stand and let yourself be beaten down, all the while never giving up is truly living. Suffering for no good reason, for no rewarding end, that is life. We impact the here and now, even 500 years in the future is still now. It's not until the world has stopped revolving around all the centers of the world, that there is truly an end. And when the world really does end, when the motions really do come to a stop, isn't it all the things that we've learned and all of the things that we've deemed worthwhile that will be gone? Washed away.

What I believe today, I may never believe again. What I tell you may never change your life, may never impact the world, and may blow away in the wind. But odds are I'll say it anyway. I said before, how can the world revolves around so many centers? Surely it cannot, and yet it does. If it's not broken don't fix it.

But even now, I give a statement that is biased, for I am the center of the universe. Right?