The idea of a timestamp is a curious one. It locks in a word, a phrase, a sentence typed into the temporal ether. You chat, you text, write an email, or a letter, and those words, those ideas suddenly have a place, in all four dimensions. It is no longer floating free. It becomes concrete, solid. Real.
I came across the idea of a worldline, and it struck me as poetic. You could say Einstein, who came up with the notion, was the poet of physics, and indeed the way he interacted with science was with an artist's genius. It goes like this: a worldline is the sequential path of something through both time and space, from the moment it is created to the moment of it's non-existence. A worldline is the string that binds us to place in this universe, as we know and see and perceive it. Invisible to the naked eye, but as real as the touch of the keyboard beneath my fingertips.
When we are gone, when we no longer exist, our worldines ended in this place, that string remains. A record of ourselves is left behind in some form or fashion. In the gametic DNA that we pass on, in our letters, or in some book. We weave together, one string ravelling into another.
A ship's worldline is it's log. It must contain the date and the position, and you can see the course that it charted through the brine and spray. This is my log, as small and insignificant as it is. This is where I can stamp my mark and say: Phil was here.
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So, where do we go when our worldline ends in this place? Are we “non-existent”? Is our legacy only in what memories we leave behind, what writings, or offspring? How can you who were “created” into existence become non-existent unless the creator also un-created you? Or is it just total, random chance that brought you into being?
What if the creator told you that he created you as an eternal being? What if the creator told you that while your physical body will die, your spirit and soul live on eternally and will be joined to a resurrection body someday? That your identity will remain intact? That what you do in this life will have an eternal impact on the rest of your existence? Is that not an enduring legacy? Or are we just leaves blowing in the winds of time?
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished”. “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest , thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” Verses from chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians, the Bible.
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