Eschatology

And thus, our world was ended.

But would you believe me for telling you that we're going backwards? That this life - my life - is playing in reverse?

I was there in senile ignorance the day the world was made. Molten clay scooped from cosmic dust. By God? It does not matter. Leave it to humans to attempt to explain something that has no bearing on their lives. Always they looked back, when the real threat was right ahead of them.

From the mud and reeds we built a civilization. It fell down, but we always put it back together.

Technology and faith were the hallmarks of our civilization. The two always worked with and against each other, more alike than any would admit. Consider it a hand-me-down from our apish forefathers. The capacity for thought permitted the use of tools, but could never function properly without a satisfactory explanation of why - whether deluded or not.

Humanity grasped for space, but utterly failed. A new player - greed, always attached anchors where humanity needed wings. And thus the seams of our existence began to unravel, tugged in all directions at once.

I walked among you, and for a while we were equal. But then for a time it was you that became senile, and it was I that became naive. When the cracks became apparent in your veneer, you turned to your leaders for guidance. And thus, it became apparent how your systems would fail. Democracy, it is said, is a great thing. But it celebrates mediocrity. It is a peace-time means that fails in crisis. When the greatest powers needed leadership - direction - they instead fell to squabbling and politics. And thus, we are as much responsible for our demise as they are.

I watched as the fighting grew to wars. Great and terribly wars. The first was an atrocity of politics. The second and atrocity of ideals. The third... was the darkest aspects of humanity laid bare, and it was finally the crack that became a fissure. Though humanity survived it's own attempts to exterminate itself, the seeds were sown.

As the end drew near, I watched my own birth. Through the crumbling ruins of Earth my cries rang out. Our little blue marble in the cosmos fell to the same dust that made it, and through its death, I was born, and I now descend back to its beginning. I am as I was made. I am Hope.