Dust as a metaphor for life

[_Gollum_]

You sweep it away, you come back an hour later, more dust. You sweep it away again, you come back later, more dust. Again and again and again, all throughout your life. The battle is never won, it never can be won. To me, that's what living is like. You feed yourself, the need is temporarily satisfied, then you have to do it again later. You sleep, the need is temporarily satisfied, then you have to go back to sleep the next night. It is a burden just to maintain your existence. So much fighting, so much daily struggle, just for something you never wanted in the first place, something you now despise.

 

[Linda]

Blame the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It's in the nature of living things that they are not in equilibrium with their environment, and so they must constantly struggle against the Second Law to maintain that state of non-equilibrium.
If you want to trace it back even further, the Second Law comes from the fact that (1) the very early universe was extremely uniform and homogeneous, and (2) gravity is an attractive force.
If you don't like it, I guess you'll just have to go and find a different universe to live in.

 

[U. A.]

This sounds familiar...

 

[Pluto]