Because every lasting invention is eventually surrounded by layers upon layers of casing and buttons, dials and windows, this door is absolutely necessary for when things break and need to be fixed. In most cases though, especially if the inventor is very experienced, no one will ever notice this door. It’s just too dangerous for others to go messing with things they don’t understand, and no inventor wants their secrets revealed.
And so it was for the creators of the planets. No creation as large and complicated as a planet ever gets made by a single creator. However, no creator skilled enough to make planets would ever share their secrets with others. And so, every creator added their own door and their own key into the mysteries of the universe, confident in their own supreme intellects that no one else could ever discover their secrets.
And so it had been for all of time that planets had come and gone without their mysteries revealed. Round, square, triangular, ring shaped, they came, with upside down mountains and inside out skies. Animals lived upon them that flew in the seas and swam in the air and crawled along the mossy sands.
However, there came a time when the creators ran out of ideas. They started making planets that would implode on themselves or have lava instead of water in the oceans. These great creators, outside the realm of moral concerns, made animals simply to torment them. They made birds that could not fly and reptiles that has to move along the ground with their bellies. The made bugs that lived no more than a day and gargantuan monsters that lived indefinitely but were incredibly stupid.
The foremost inventor of animals could not bear to see creations made to be tormented this way, but an inventor of animals was held below creators of such things as mountains and oceans. And so this pathetic inventor of animals confronted the foremost inventor of stars, the undisputed leader among the inventors, and issued a challenge. That on the simplest of worlds, the simplest of animals could unlock the mysteries of the mightiest star.
This challenge soon spread through the cosmos and inventors began choosing sides. Those who sided with the inventor of stars made the most beautifully complex creations ever made. They created planets with rings and moons, rivers with fjords, cave moss that glowed and crystals that sparkled as though filled with millions of lights. Those who sided with inventor of animals made the most beautifully simple creations ever made. They created majestic trees that grew from miniscule seeds, sprawling beaches filled with sparkling stones, water that flowed from tall mountains simply to fall into large pools below.
All the while the inventor of animals and the inventor of stars worked in secret. There came a time however when both teams could work no further and all that was left was for the inventor of stars and the inventor of animals to unveil their works. The inventor of stars went first, confident that the star that had been made would bring the inventor of animal’s creation to shame, and with a flash the sun was born in the center of the galaxy.
The inventors looked at the star in awe, but questioned “How can it be the mightiest of stars? There are far greater stars in the cosmos.” The inventor of stars however calmed them and pointed to the planet below where already life was beginning and animals were forming. “See”, the inventor of stars said, “I have created a star so great it can make life of its own. I have created a star more powerful even than the inventor of animals who has challenged me. Does everyone agree that this is the mightiest of stars?” The inventors cheered among the cosmos, for truly the greatest creation ever to exist had been made and all had witnessed it.
The poor inventor of animals set his creation down upon the earth, mindless of the cheering and soon all had quieted so they could see what the inventor of animals had made. Shivering and naked two animals, a couple, we’re sitting among the trees. “They have no shells? They have no tusks, no tails? But with so little hair, how will they stay warm?” And so the murmurs spread amongst them. “Then you all agree that these two are the simplest of all animals?” It quickly was agreed. “So you have lost!”, shouted the inventor of stars, “These animals you have created cannot possibly understand the mysteries of the star I have created.” The inventor of animals paid no heed to the mocking, instead he went before the two animals and proceeded to make the simplest and most pathetic star ever made since the discovery of star making. The inventors we’re confused, “How can these animals possibly learn the secrets of the mightiest star from such a weak display?” The inventor answered, “They will learn.” They rebuked “But you must teach them and even you do not understand how to build such a mighty star!” The inventor answered, “no one can teach them, they cannot hear us, I built them without a way back in.” The inventor of stars roared, “That’s impossible!” The inventor of animals looked up and replied, “But I have done it.” The inventor of stars laughed, “It does not matter, these creatures of yours are miraculous but still they can never understand the mysteries of my greatest star.” The inventor of animals stepped back from the planet and replied, “They will learn because that is their strongest desire, and it can never be satisfied.”
The furious inventor of stars picked up the creatures and flung them to the other side of the world. Storms and heat and sand and waves were sent at them, and all the while the inventor of stars roared, “They will not survive to learn my secrets!”. With this the inventor of animals accomplished what had been the secret behind the challenge. Seeing such pathetic creatures tormented, the inventors turned on the creator of stars and a war began throughout the cosmos.
Battles upon battles began and all the while the inventor of animals wrestled with the inventor of stars to save the creatures from destruction. Eventually the inventor of animals reasoned with the inventor of stars, “Even I cannot know if they will succeed, but if you destroy them then you forfeit the challenge.”
And so the battles calmed, and everyone went to look at the creatures, now multiplied and spread throughout the planet because of the terrible chaos. The inventor of stars, seeing that these creatures really were magnificent to have survived, turned to the inventor of animals and asked, “What do you call them?” The inventor of animals replied, “I call them my children, but they call themselves ‘human’.”
-By Jim Albert, 2005