A Letter to Humanity

Happy Birthday and Happy New Year

Dear Humanity,

There is a planet dancing in the cosmos on the edge of the Milky Way—The Pale Blue Dot, Gaia, Earth. How long have you graced this green and blue plane? 100,000 years? 300,000? More?

Your memory is getting hazy, Humanity. So many millennia have been lost to time, with each generation struggling to remember the events of the last…

Do you remember when you were born, at least? It all started on December 31, at 23:54, or so the Cosmic Calendar goes.¹ You were the product of countless eons, born from the stars that died in the timeless void of Heaven’s Furnace. Deep down, you always remembered your starlit origin, instinctively gazing skyward every night into the infinite unknown.

Do you remember when you gained your legs? You began migrating—bouncing from Africa to Asia to Europe to that place just across the Bering. Not an inch of land was safe from your prying eyes! Then you started making boats, and the seas became yours, too.

Do you remember when your history began? It was Dec 31 at 23:59:47, or thereabout. On this grand moment, around 3500 BC, the First Scribe put stone to stone and recorded the First Words. 10,000 years of toiling and scratching finally gave way to concrete meaning. I wonder, who was that nameless scribe?

The Kish Tablet, written between 3500 BC - 3000 BC; It is the oldest surviving evidence of writing

Written word would soon become your weapon, allowing you to create life and death in just a few strokes. This grand discovery occurred almost six thousand years ago. Six thousand beautiful, triumphant, tragic, and brutal years. And in each of those years, Humanity, you have done wonders.

You’ve charted the stars to navigate the seas and decipher the divine. You’ve studied the beasts of the Earth, trailing them across the desert plains, jungles, and seas to discover their nature, only to silently confront your own. You’ve created philosophies and religions to better understand what it means to exist. You’ve pierced the veil of reality, discovering the language and laws of the universe. You discovered that science evolves with you, Humanity, while math remains near perfect and unchanging.

You’ve seen countless generations live and die in the eternal cycle of renewal. Great men and women have walked among your ranks, titans of the age, there to show the others how magnificent the world can be.

In your quest for survival and meaning, Humanity, you’ve made many great works. You’ve erected buildings for your gods, kings, and nations, molding them so that they would stand for centuries or even millennia.

Prambanan Temple; Began construction in 850 AD

You’ve performed death-defying stunts, just to feel the thrill of life course through every fiber of your being.

You’ve built economic systems, governments, and laws to organize your societies. Through this, you’ve discovered every industry, invention, innovation, and incentive for progress. Over time, even as nations have risen and fallen, each generation has grown more wealthy and prosperous.

You’ve created vehicles that defy gravity, allowing your ranks to soar into the sky and beyond. You’ve harnessed steam, wind, fire, the sun, electricity, and even time to create machines that push the boundaries of human knowledge.

A Chinese nuclear fusion reactor, a source of clean, long-lasting energy

You’ve created music, poetry, mosaics, dance, odysseys, scripture, paintings, and film to express your truest nature and to unveil yourself to the world without fear. In this manner, Humanity, you have come to understand what it means to be you.

“Prince of Egypt Red Sea” by Samuel Michlap

With each discovery and advancement, there has been great suffering. Tragedy has struck you due to unforeseen errors or through your own willful ignorance.

Remains of the suits of the Apollo 1 astronauts, who were tragically burned alive in a cabin accident.

But you never let pain deter you for long, did you? Like a fighter who can’t quit, your men and women always stand back up and push past the doubt, self-loathing, and pity. You’ve let tragedy be your teacher, and have used it to soar to ever greater heights.

Astronauts in the Apollo 7, the mission immediately succeeding the tragedy of the Apollo 1

Since your birth, Humanity, you’ve let the world be your canvas, school, and playground. But you’ve also turned it into your wasteland and battlefield. Your species has a dark side, one it must contend with all too much. Your ranks have manipulated, cheated, maimed, killed, tortured, conquered, and ravished for the sake of it. Throughout your history, you’ve let hate be your guide. Each generation has torn itself apart in the futile quest for power, succeeding only in soiling its hands with the blood of the innocent.

A haunting moment from the 1941 Lviv Pogrom, in which a screaming, stripped Jewish woman is being chased through the streets

Your wicked members are a scourge, Humanity, who have subjugated countless to suffering and torment. And yet, when faced with injustice, your honorable ones have fought back with a vicious might worthy of kings. Even when you’ve been beaten down and inches from defeat, they have always found the strength to persevere.

The Velvet Revolution, which peacefully ended 40 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia (1989)

Iranians protesting the death of Masha Amini in police custody, in which young women burned their hijabs, even at the risk of being arrested, beaten, or killed (2022)

Loudon County high school students fighting against American delusions (2023)

As your Campbell said, “All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.” Though you may be Janus-faced, Humanity, it is your agency, willpower, and soul that has allowed you to find greatness and eradicate the evil that lies within. But to tame this beast takes bravery and courage; strength and resilience; fearlessness and faith. One must dive headfirst into the black infinite sea of the soul to purge each plague.

In this New Year, I hope you find this bravery. When the sun rises tomorrow, may you have a little more honor, a little more humility, and a little more peace.

May you find clarity, civility, and patience. May your creatives find that spark they’ve been searching for. May your scientists and mathematicians stumble upon something phenomenal. May your children find joy in the world. May your men and women finally see the beauty in Truth.

I pray and wish for these things, Humanity, because I love you dearly. Though I often feel alienated from you and confused by you, I embrace you. In my 19 years, I have seen some of your angels and demons laid bare and I know what powers you possess. I know how glorious you can be. I hope you cull your evils, day by day, with the blades of knowledge, mercy, and wisdom, in order to fashion a greater world.

Until then, my dearest Humanity…

Happy Birthday and Happy New Year,

— J.S. Kasimir

1. Popularized by Carl Sagan in the 1970s, the calendar is a clever learning device that puts humanity and its relation in the universe in perspective. On “January 1”, over 13.7 billion years ago, our universe was born. But it wasn’t until “May 11”, or so that the Milky Way formed. The Sun was born in “September.” Humans did not arrive until “December 31, 23:54”. Read more about it here: http://palaeos.com/time/cosmic_calendar.html