8 minutes, 480 seconds, 375 "I love you"s.
If the sun were to explode right now, we wouldn't even know about it for 8 whole minutes.
For 8 whole minutes, we would still feel the sun on our faces and see the shadows on the pavement.
We would still see the dew on the tips of the grass.
Lovers would continue to make love. Soldiers would continue to fight for peace.
We would all go on with our lives...in ignorance.
For 8 whole minutes, there would be no goodbyes, no chaos, no panic nor pandemonium.
There would be peace, plain and sample.
Then for 7 whole minutes, the man in the bar would order another drink because if he knew the world were about to end, he would've found his father and he would've held him.
6 whole minutes, the woman in the hospital would be pushing hard like hell because her baby would be only seconds from being born.
5 whole minutes, the little boy who was told by his daddy not to play with dolls, would sneak into his sister's room and he'd put them in pretty dresses.
4 whole minutes, she would be stumbling through her vows because she'd secretly written them the day before and even though the groom had his memorized like the back of his hand, her words strung together in a way he'd never heard before.
3 whole minutes, the couple would be laying on the grass. He hated cloud-watching. But she loved it.
2 whole minutes, the man would tell his wife he loved her. And even though one could utter about 93 "I love you"s in 120 seconds, he would only say it once. But he would mean it.
1 minute, 60 seconds, 47 "I love you"s.
And then everything would change.
The sun, the same sun that has witnessed everything that humanity has accomplished, or not accomplished, would betray us.
It would swallow the sky and gravity would begin to fail us.
There would be no oxygen.
Our lungs would forget just how much they love the taste of air.
Everything would burn. And then there would be nothing.
Ignorance was bliss...
for 8 whole minutes.
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copyright mary neubauer © all rights reserved.
