How old am I? June 15 was my birthday. The seventy fourth one. At least this is what my family and friends believed. Not myself. I am much older than you can imagine. On my birthday, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affections, hugs, kisses and gifts, by my family and friends, wishing me a long life. I was telling myself “if this is what I get for seventy four years of age; imagine what I would get for my real age.” I am somewhere between five and fifteen billion years old. Yes, billion with B. They believed I came into this world seventy four years ago, on June 15. How wrong they were. On that day I only moved out of my mother’s womb, and continued my existence in a different environment. Every atom, every molecule and every chemical element of my body, then and now, have been in existence for billions of years. Two thirds of my body is water. H2O. Every Hydrogen atom of my body and yours and the whole Universe was created in the Big Bang explosion, some 13.7 billion years ago. The heavier elements such as Carbon, Oxygen, Calcium, Magnesium, sulfur and Iron were formed in the core of the stars when gravity caused massive compression and raised the temperature to several Million degrees. The atoms of Hydrogen and Helium broke down, combined together and formed these heavier elements. In some of the massive stars, when the compression and temperature reach certain degrees, the star explodes in one of the most catastrophic explosions known to man, called Supernova Explosion. 90% of the star’s original mass will fly apart in space, where some of this material gather together again and form new stars. Our sun was formed after one of these supernova explosions some five billion years ago. I was there. Believe it or not, every chemical element in my body was formed and existed before the sun and our planet earth came into being. I have existed for eons and eons and will continue to exist well beyond the day I die. I am an old man. Very old indeed. I have always been and will always be part of this grand Universe. I have existed and will continue to exist in different forms and shapes. Even during this miniscule span of time we call our Life, the composition of our body changes hundreds of times. We take in chemicals from our environment in exchange for some we get rid of. My body is not the same mixture of chemicals as it was the day I was born. I am not the same person that I was even a minute ago, when by inhaling billions of Oxygen molecules and exhaling zillions of Carbon dioxide molecules the chemical composition of my body changes drastically. Most certainly I do not have the same body that I had the day I was born 74 years ago. In fact, a new “Me” is borne every second. Of course, I don’t mind receiving all the hugs and kisses and gifts once every one second, but if everyone believed in this scenario, nobody would care about my birthday anymore! Some argue, on a religious belief, that my life started when I was born as a human being, when my body was enlivened with a spirit called human soul. I wish somebody would show me a shred of evidence that such a thing called “ Soul “ exists outside of my physical structure. Up until that time, I maintain that “Spirit”, “Soul”, “Ghost”, “Supernatural” are all figments of our imagination and created by us, the human kind, to have something to hang on to, when we cannot cope with the prospect of “Death” and loss of life. Therefore I continue to believe that I have existed, if not lived, for billions of years and will continue to exist many more billions after I die. So, to all who wished me a long life, I am happy to report that they got their wishes. I am indeed a very old man. Long live the Universe. Hormoz
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 03:19:01 +0000