So much happens to us, so many histories remain unwritten, and the world, as it must, keeps going on. The world will keep moving forward, and it will go its own way, and people will always be moving about in the mornings, commuting in crowds, in trains and in buses, despite what is told and what is not. If there is any scope of piecing together a sort of broken history of this life with these pieces, even if someone were to consider this laborious undertaking, most of it would remain lost on streets of cities no one could list, on tables in bars and cafes long shut down, in the minds of people who would have forgotten all about it—for there are always better things to remember.
And this is with all the headway, the building blocks I lay in the bare. What of those who do not talk? The friend who keeps to himself? What of them and their stories? Well, nothing. In the end, many like him have come and gone, and as vivid as each life is, no remembrance, no records exist. That, and only that, is why we must strive to make a mark on this world, so long as it is not some scar we leave behind. People remember tyrants, but then, who would wish to be remembered only to be spit upon?
Why bother going the extra mile? Why bother living an outlandish, unexplainable life? For the glory, for the grandeur! What else? The world has come far, sure, and we casually enjoy days monarchs and regents would long for, but the ambition of Ozymandius remains the same, and so does his downfall, and so does his hubris. For all its modernity, the world remains plagued by people who have not made those strides. And now, we are playing catch-up with it. So much is expected of us, and we remain full of ourselves—no thought about anything else in sight!
Why does anyone do anything? To be remembered. What else can you do? This planet has remained without you for millennia, and it will remain after you, all things considered. All we have is some seventy years to make our mark. Was there any ambition more noble than this!? Was there any species more selfish than this!