Book #2

l u c k [unfinished]

Something that always gets to me is the amount of things that had to go right in order for life to be how it is today.

A long time ago, matter won out anti-matter.

The laws of the universe were just right for some of that matter to collapse into a sphere that ignited fusion.
The first stars.

Some of those stars used up all their energy and went dark.
Others collected matter and threw it back, further and further into the universe each time.

Time passed, as it does.
Enough time for the stars to collect in the gravity of black holes as galaxies.
Enough time for the stars and galaxies to drift apart.

And in a safe arm of a spiral galaxy, a back alley of stars, as luck had it, some of the spewed out matter of the aging universe collected into a yellowish star.
Quite an average thing of the time.

Around the star, a disk of dust collected into rings, then rocks, then planets.

As one large planet drifted into the gravity well of the new sun, it displaced some planets, stole some dust.
It's friend pulled it back out.
It displaced more planets, moved more dust, and settled.

One planet, quite an extraordinary thing, took a heavy hit in the early days.
Some of it's mass was stolen, a smaller world that got stuck around the first.
Not uncommon in the universe.

Time passed, as it does.
The planets cooled.
The universe aged.

Some chemicals clumped and clashed together.
Life started.
Multiple times, multiple places.
Life ended.
Multiple times, multiple places.
Life merged.
It grew, it changed.
It evolved.

Life evolved in such a way that strange blobs became symmetrical, directional creatures.
That those creatures hunted and were hunted.
That the cycle of hunt-or-be-hunted drove natural selection.
That big creatures became small and small creatures became big.
That some of those creatures became primates, and some became avians, and some became canines.

Everything sorted out so that every species alive today is alive, and every species not, is not.

One creature picked up a stick, hot from sky fire, and learned how to spread fire.
Another learned how to create it.
Another learned how to grow crops.
Another learned how to select better crops.

And so cities sprang up, where food was plenty.
Through specialization and trade, many things were created.
Currency, math, language, writing.

Stories and greed and leadership led to empires.
Stories and greed and leadership led to wars.
Some cities, some countries, some nations died, others prevailed.
Some people left their cities and countries and nations.
Some joined others, some were left with none.
Every person alive today is alive because something happened before.