Star clusters... A massive group of stars held together by gravity, in an area that would normally house only a few.
One of the most breathtaking treasures in our known universe, one must wonder what it would be like to observe one up close.
Will our kind be able to one day, in the far distant future, travel into one of these star clusters? Or will they all burn out and disappear before we can escape our solar system, forever out of our reach?
Star clusters are just one of many grand spectacles of the universe, yet likely impossible for us to reach. It's possible that the expansion of the universe may have already dragged them away from our grasp...
...And there's nothing we can do about it. Whether we choose to accept it or not, time marches on without us, not a single damn given about what we have to say.
How cruel a fate it is for us to be mortal, and how even crueler it is that immortality is a fate worse than death. That existential dread, knowing that there are treasures of the universe that are forever lost to us.
We are but the tiniest spec of dust within the universe's grand plan, a comically miniscule player in the past, present, and future of the entirety of space...
...Yet to say we are insignificant would be nothing short of foolish.
Whether we are alone in the universe or not, the fact still remains that of all the galaxies, of all the literally countless planets and stars that have ever existed or will ever exist...
...We are alive. We are lucky to be able to exist, of all places, on our tiny planet. Our cosmic utopia constructed to accommodate us. Our home.
You and I happened to be born too early to explore our world and too late to explore the universe, yet born at the perfect time to observe it from afar and imagine what could be.
This, in my opinion, is one of the most profound beauties of life, to be able to observe and imagine. To be able to immerse ourselves in our extraordinary present, our perfect here and now.
It's all too easy and entirely reasonable to be saddened by the fact that there are spectacles of the universe that we'll never be able to explore for ourselves, yet at the same time, it's all to easy for us to take all the spectacles we've been lucky enough to observe for granted.
Perhaps instead of dwelling on our past or dreading the future, we should instead just focus on the present, focus on what makes us a special, yet miniscule player in the constantly expanding universe.
We should take the knowledge that we've accumulated about the universe and channel it into our creativity, and make something out of it that could maybe outlast us, something that could mean more than what the surface implies, something that could have so much to say while showing so little.
Something like... A drawing of a dragon floating in a star cluster.

anyway might turn this into a YCH someday idfk