Be Wonderful While You’re Here

It won't last forever

I’m Teague de La Plaine. This is Open Logbook—a public log of observations on humanity, shared systems, and the long future.

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There’s a quiet assumption many of us carry, even if we don’t consciously believe it: that this life is a rehearsal. That the real meaning is elsewhere. Later. After. In the next phase, the next version, the next life, the next upgrade.

But what if it isn’t?

Not as a provocation. Not as a philosophical stance. Just as a working assumption.

Whatever consciousness is, it seems to arise, look around for a while, and then stop. The evidence we have suggests that memory, identity, and awareness are fragile processes tied to the body. When the body ends, the process ends too. Energy continues. Matter rearranges. But experience—the feeling of being here—does not appear to persist.

This idea unsettles people because it removes the escape clause. If there’s no cosmic redo, no guaranteed continuation, then this life isn’t a draft. It’s the whole document.

Oddly, that doesn’t make life grim. It makes it sharp.

Finality gives weight to ordinary moments. A conversation isn’t filler. A kindness isn’t symbolic. A day isn’t something to get through. If this is the only time we get to be conscious in this particular way, then attention becomes the highest form of respect.

Most of us don’t fail morally because we are cruel. We fail because we’re distracted. We postpone being present until conditions improve. We tell ourselves we’ll slow down later, be kinder later, listen better later. Later is seductive because it feels responsible. In practice, it’s where attention goes to die.

Photo by Thomas Ciszewski on Unsplash

This isn’t an argument against religion, nor a case for atheism. It doesn’t require disbelief or faith. It only asks that we take our days seriously. Even the boring ones. Especially the quiet ones.

Being “wonderful” doesn’t mean being exceptional. It means being awake. Capable of wonder. Capable of noticing when someone else is hurting. Capable of choosing decency when no one is watching and nothing is being recorded.

If this is it, then being present isn’t self-help. It’s responsibility.

We don’t need a cosmic purpose to live well.

We need to show up.

Be wonderful while you’re here.

Not because it’s rewarded. Not because it’s remembered forever.

Because it’s rare.

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