How Getting to Know the Cosmos Can Help You Cope With Heartache (Part 2)

In Part 1 of HGTKTCCHYCWH , I challenge the notion of accusing the Universe of being the horrible reason shitty things happen to us, especially when it comes to bad breakups.  Before anyone judges something like the Universe, it is first important to understand who and what the Universe is, where It came from and where It is heading too.   Let me try and explain...
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This is Helix Nebula, a quick 700 LIGHT-YEARS away from our home, Earth. It is just one part of our universe as we know it. Crazy, huh? By ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson (http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1329d/)

Universe has been through some shit, people.

Before even accusing the Universe of not understanding our pain in this moment, we must understand the issues that the Universe, personified, has gone through first. The Universe has seem some shit, let me tell you. It all started out with a massive explosion, The Big Bang, when all life as we understand it was compacted into a microscopic, infinitesimally tiny particle. Think about that for a second as you read this article with your spaciously well-designed well-appropriated body frame. Now think of all those times in your life where you have felt cramped or in a space that was uncomfortably small. Have you ever been stuck in a completely full elevator and the air is getting hot and you are getting progressively more annoyed because you just want to get out of there? Or perhaps been to a concert that is way too crowded and you are getting squished, elbows jabbing into your ribs, mouth parched with thirst and you are just wondering if this was all worth it? Now imagine taking that entire experience, and then add all of your belongings, your family and then a couple more billion people and then smash all of that down into a tiny box smaller than the size of a thimble. Pretty uncomfortable, huh?  Forget about the fact that you would you be dead at this point, but just think about how freaking annoyed or angry or weird you would feel. Whatever you think you’d feel, amplify that emotion by a trillion and THAT, is just a tiny taste of what the Universe has been through.

Now, ask your self, after going through an experience like that, if a failed relationship or two is such a big deal after all. Honestly, can you really blame the Universe for not caring about you?

If you’re reading this and telling your self, “But you know what? This doesn’t make my pain feel any better” and your mind starts to trail back to the pain of your recent breakup, I ask you to ask yourself, if you think you're lonely now, how the hell do you think the god damn universe felt when there was literally NOTHING but destruction and lifelessness for the first 13 BILLION YEARS OF ITS LIFE. 13 BILLION YEARS. Assuming you’ll live to 100, that is like if you lived your life 130 million times and were single every lifetime except for now- when you finally get a chance to meet people and even start dating. Look into the present now.  Does it even matter that you dated a douchebag? After going through something like that, you can’t really come down on the universe for not giving a hot gaseous damn if you are going through a break up. If you want to blame something for your heartache, blame literally anything or anyone else EXCEPT LIFE ITSELF for your pain. ​

This is an artistic representation of the Earth during some rough times. (Credit: BBC)

Oh, and Earth had some rough years before It settled down too. 
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“I assert that if you are depressed after being exposed to the cosmic perspective, you started your day with an unjustifiably large ego.”
- Neil Degrasse Tyson 
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The origins of the Universe are one thing, but do you have any idea how much trauma our EARTH went through before becoming the safe haven of life that it is now? Earth went through HELL before becoming the calm, well adjusted, everybody-adores-you planet that it is now. The planet that now allows us to do things like watch Netflix and order chai lattes and complain about how we look fat this morning. Perhaps once you understand the shit the earth had to deal with before it became the suave stable paradise of vitality that it is now, you may feel less judgmental about the universe.

​Following the Big Bang, the universe was a hot mess and as the Earth was trying to find itself and become a real planet, it was bombarded with planet-sized meteors and asteroids for MILLIONS OF YEARS before it even stabilized. This is called the period of Late Heavy Bombardment and this roughly went on for 300 MILLION YEARS. Can you imagine going through 300 MILLION YEARS worth of heartache like the earth did until finding peace? In her text message from Part 1, my best friend said that we go through these heartaches so that when we meet the right person, we will just know. Compared to 300 million years, spending six months to twenty years in crappy relationships doesn’t seem so bad after all. If anything, the earth understands this more than any one of us ever well. Do not take it for granted. 

Frankly speaking, go through a Big Bang followed by one billions years of asteroid bombardment and then ask your self if meeting a few douchebags in your life time is really that bad. The only reason I or anyone else is alive is because of the Earth and its hardships. So if Earth had to go through some shady stuff, I honestly don’t mind if I deal with a heartbreak or seven in the process my self.​

So, what does one do with this information? If you feel worse after reading this, popular physicist and narrator of “Cosmos: SpaceTime Odyssey,” Neil Degrasse Tyson said “I assert that if you are depressed after being exposed to the cosmic perspective, you started your day with an unjustifiably large ego.” Therapy can help with that ego. Try it out some time. 

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References:
1.Taylor, G. Jeffrey. "Wandering Gas Giants and Lunar Bombardment"
2. Joseph Silk (2009). Horizons of Cosmology. Templeton Press. p. 208
3. Simon Singh (2005). Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe. Harper Perennial. p. 560