Time goes by, bringing some, and leaving far too many. Life creates to watch its creation flourish. Life is the novelist, and Time is the passionless publishing company, telling Life that what it has made is not enough and denying its work, a piece entitled, “Humanity.”  Life nurtures and cares for its creation until its ready to be tested by Time. Once again, Time takes its toll upon Humanity and sends Life to continue its work.

The cycle repeats, and Time snatches away Humanity piece by piece, leaving Life to watch as its beloved creation fends for itself again and again against Time, an enemy Life knows Humanity cannot face.

After so much effort at developing Humanity, Life is frustrated. Surely this idea cannot come to fruition in the state it is in. Humanity was becoming hateful, flawed, without any true meaning. But at the same time, it was so full of tenderness, so vivid. What was it missing?

Sleepless nights followed for Life and Time went on in its ways. Time gave and took from Humanity until it was not truly Life’s creation anymore but Time’s.

We became shaped by formality and stature. Expectations. Changing views and beliefs. The things that Life meant for us became forgotten. Uniqueness, Beauty. True Beauty. The minutes go by in our heads just as the petty currency in our bank accounts.

Time gives us burden. Emptiness. A feeling that often is not even recognized. We have our sights so focused on success, which thanks to Time is now in direct correlation with currency. Cars. Houses. Businesses. These things are acquired and we feel light, happy. Empowered. We forget the times when we were four years of age playing in our back yards with our brothers and sisters, the Time where that feeling was real and true. We back down, back to our office complexes to reinvest ourselves in the accumulation of currency.

We decline the phone call from our ecstatic brother, who is the father to a beautiful daughter now. We miss our mother’s funeral. Our beautiful wife feels abandoned. We do not respond to the letter from our hospitalized uncle.

The things Life intended for Humanity. Oh, what it intended. A Humanity without fame. Without lust. Without jealousy.

Things are grim for Life. Time takes more and more from us, extracts from our kind like a leech. Blinds us.  A shroud clouds what we feel and hides it away. And we believe what Time tells us. It tells us that the woman we fell in love with at the coffee shop three years ago is not the same as she was then. That our brother has not even shown us a parting glance the last time we accomplished something. That the letter from our uncle belonged with the rest of the junk mail. That attending a funeral would not help our constantly declining mental state; and worse yet, destroy our focus on acquiring currency.

Our neighbor waved at us this morning.

A dog was happily letting his ears flop about in the wind in the car next to us.

A mother bird had nested in the foyer of our office building.

We did not see.

We need only wipe the fog from our eyes and open them wider. We’d see so much. So much that we should have seen much, much sooner. We would see Life. Our wife is still as wonderful as she has ever been, and we know it; we have always known it. We need only go to her. Our brother cried when he heard about mom, and wanted more than anything to see us. We need only call him. Despite the fact that he is a bad influence and more on the abnormal side, our uncle wants more than anything to hear from the nurse that he has mail. We need only write it. Our mother’s funeral was beautiful and perfectly represented the angelic life she lived. We need only leave flowers at her grave.

What Life gave Humanity was wondrously, inconceivably meaningful. It was the first chapter of the novel, entitled, “Love.” But as the book progresses with Time, Love gets further and further. Humanity is unfortunately a long story.

Chapter 1: Love

Chapter 18: Care

Chapter 59: Indifference

Chapter 113: Bother

Chapter 277: Grievance

Humanity currently sits on Life’s table, opened to chapter 277. Life sits with its hands resting on either side of its work. It has contemplated on multiple occasions before, shutting the book, and reopening it back to chapter 1; taking away everything that Time has done to it. But it won’t. It can’t.

Despite Time’s greed, Life still has all of the main ideals of chapter 1 locked in its mind. Humanity is too important to Life for it to simply be thrown away. All it can do is continue. Life moves forward just as Time does, continuously. Time lingers over Life’s shoulders as it writes and watches, making sure Humanity doesn’t revert to its old ways.

A chapter called “Desolation” sits and waits in the future. It is unclear to Life when it will show itself, but it will. It cannot be prevented by Life. It cannot be prevented by Time.

But by Humanity, it can.