I left work today, like any other day, to find this on the ground. I like to think quite deeply about existence, and time, as I've written about previously. This word, 'Eternity'; I have seen on the pavement around Adelaide, South Australia for the past week.
It is an ironic thing, to write the word 'Eternity' in an ephemeral material, on the ground; where people tread and trod; and it may be more a comment on myself, looking at the ground instead of the world around me; however, I find this simple word in a simple medium simply fascinating.
The chalk gets picked up on the bottom of shoes, in the puddles of rain, and smaller bits even still by the breeze. However, I thought that this was at first a fantastic art installation by a local artist to invite people to muse on the ephemeral nature of all things.
Turns out its got more to do with a cult. On the bus ride home, I envisioned sitting in a cafe, sipping expensive, roasted beans, and having a chat with an artist who has ideas that mimic my own - that however you attempt to represent or document something, the passage of time, and entropy will eventually destroy all things.
Here's another image I captured of 'Eternity' closer to its oblivion:
To my disdain, this text was placed on the pavement by a religious group, inviting people instead to think of the supposed eternal life that exists beyond death. As an atheistic individual, capable of scientific understanding, the idea of existence beyond the current state of consciousness due to some supernatural force is not one that I can reconcile.
I can't fathom how the electrical signals travelling about in the neurons in my brain can continue to have an experience when the chemistry of life ceases to function. What is 'eternal', however, is the concept of entropy, that as time endures; the atomic makeup of all things becomes less and less stable. It could be argued that this is what causes cancer, as RNA / DNA produces mutant cells, that have been displaced by radiation.
The word eternity, to me, scrawled in an ephemeral manner is not a pious or religious reminder, but instead, a reinforcement of the limited time that we have to be.
Photographs in this article were captured by myself in and around Adelaide, South Australia