Creation and Destruction

Background story: So, I began a quick email to Greg, a friend of mine with whom I attended college. You see, Greg and I had many very late night runs to the 7-11 across the street from my dorm on the way home from the bars, with only one purpose - to gorge ourselves on 7-11 nachos. And because of that, I started to write a quick email to Greg saying that I went to 7-11 late the other night, and got some nachos, and thought of him. But this is how the email turned out...

Last night I went and got WORD REDACTED with a friend in Arlington, and as we wandered around aimlessly in the entirely unfamiliar Clarendon area looking for our car that we misplaced somewhere in the middle of the evening, we happened upon a 7-11. Freezing cold, we became quickly distracted from our search by the comfort of the familiar orange and green sign - a 24 hour front porch light inviting us to come home. Upon entering our sterile, couchless living room through the knobless glass doors, we knew our destination without even having to discuss. A quick and painless conversation with a nervous Nepali housemate behind the counter pointed us in the direction of the most incredible home appliance known to man and the little plastic packages that sit next in anticipation of assistance.

As I ripped open the surprisingly strong outer wrapping, I smiled devilishly like a 9 year old boy with a water balloon as the cute girl slowly approaches from around the corner. But the true joy began as my friend and I together depressed the first of a series of two red buttons on the ingenious apparatus, and the not quite solid but not quite liquid earth-brown substance found its temporary home on the rolling hills of corn below, seemingly flipping the horizon in the miniature world I held in my hands.

But from the below which was now the above, a force of wonder was brewing. This phenomenon, millions of years in the making, was just one more finger press from being unleashed on the new inverted continental crust formed by the previous, almost perfect union. And like an earthquake that unveils a fault reaching to the depths of the core, the electronic signal following the depression of the second button shook the countertop steel appliance, and a flow of violent yellow lava was unleashed on the unsuspecting field below.

And as I stood in awe at the beauty of the creation of our little universe, I had the brief understanding of how God felt at the end of the third day. But my time of creation had ended. Inside of me the pre-determined shift to destruction had already begun. And while I gave myself a brief moment to admire what would soon no longer be, the devilish boy inside raised his water balloon with the target both in his sights and within striking distance.

Ecstasy.

As my friend and I used our fingers to finish the cycle of creation and destruction, completing the disappearing act with the last trickle of the now semi-cool lava, we knew this was but one cycle in the endless circle of life. While this cycle had come to a close, and we said our goodbyes to our new Nepali friend, we had no regrets and no lamentation. Instead, we left with a sense of belonging, a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose. For a brief moment, just before we re-entered the cold, car-less world outside, we knew the universe around us as we had known the universe we had just created and consumed, and we felt - peace. And I thought of Greg.