Arthur C. Clarke passed away today.
First Asimov, then Carl Sagan and today Clarke.
I am not sure whether everyone will agree to naming them in one breath in one sentence.
For me however, this was the trinity that connected me to the universe and to the future.
They helped me think of life beyond what we see everyday and to imagine things beyond what we would probably imagine.
Asimov, Sagan and now Clarke ... he was the last of the trinity - a tenuous link to a world that has slowly all but disappeared into oblivion for me as I have grown older - and today, this was broken too.
I have no words to express how I feel. I am not sure why it feels so personal - enough to have caused me to log in and start writing this post despite a hectic schedule that leaves me with hardly any time to breathe.
I hope that in death, they are able to transcend the barriers of time and space that constrained them in life. To travel the universe at a whim. To see, to learn, to know and to explore. To be as unfettered physically in their new existence as their minds were in their old. To know the secrets of the universe. To be a part of that secret.
With sunset, slowly, the dream and the hope that I shall do anything that matches the contributions of these childhood idols is fading - replaced by the mundane thoughts of everyday existence.
Perhaps my only contribution shall be to add a line to the epitaph of every astronaut ...
- may his soul rest in space.
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