I'm trapped in a block

Chapter 1116 Loneliness, Numbness, and Stiffness
Stone is lonely...

In hundreds of millions of years of geological changes, rocks have always been lonely.

When the magma cools, as the temperature drops, the minerals in the magma crystallize in sequence according to their melting points, eventually forming different rocks. At this time, barriers between the rocks have already formed, and this barrier will last for a long time.

After turning into rocks, they were buried deep underground, constantly affected by geological tectonic movements over a long period of time, constantly squeezed, constantly cycled through high temperature, high pressure and cooling states, and constantly tempered by nature in a state of not being completely melted.

In this process, they continuously change their chemical and physical structures, change their own "texture", adapt to the external environment, and make themselves more "complete", but at the same time, their connection with the outside world becomes less and less, and they gradually become stable and isolated individuals.

If they are fortunate enough not to be buried underground and are exposed on the surface, they will also be weathered and eroded by nature. Even if they are hard enough, they will be worn away by time and broken into fragments and various dissolved substances by wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

These debris and dissolved materials are transported to low-lying areas by rivers, wind and glaciers and then gradually compacted under the action of pressure, and turned into isolated rocks again under the action of mineral cementation.

The wind, rain, and torture of nature did not make them feel the affinity of this world, but instead made them fall into endless loneliness again.

They just wander in the rock cycle of nature, like ghosts floating outside of nature:

Igneous rocks created by magma are exposed on the surface and are weathered into sedimentary rocks.

Sedimentary and igneous rocks are buried underground and compressed into metamorphic rocks.

Metamorphic rocks melt into new magma under high temperature and high pressure...

It seems that they can never escape from this rock cycle that has spanned countless years. Nature has paved a path specifically for them, a path filled with endless loneliness and torture. They cannot escape and can only keep walking on this path.

Stone is numb...

After walking on this lonely road for a long time, they have become completely numb.

The changes in the world and the replacement of all things are just a measure of time in their eyes and have nothing to do with them.

Even though the world has changed dramatically and the environment has changed again and again, the impact on them is almost negligible.

The stone is still the same stone, but the lonely road has become more difficult to walk on.

Stones have no sense of pain and do not feel the blows of nature. To them, wind, rain, water, and earth are just "different current states" and are just one step in the endless rock cycle.

Caught in this lonely and eternal cycle, numbness becomes their only choice, letting time pass by and letting their souls sleep in the long river.

Stone is rigid.

As everything was constantly changing, they became slower and slower, and finally stagnated.

When everything around you becomes a "standard" and numbness becomes the only means of dealing with the world, nothing becomes meaningless.

The cycle continues, but it has nothing to do with them. They stay rigidly in the same place, or are rigidly pushed to other places by nature, allowing the world to transform them into different shapes, different structures, different weights, different compositions...

They themselves have no meaning because they are isolated, so external definitions do not exist.

These lonely souls just floated in the world and completely turned into a hard lump.

But such loneliness, such numbness, such rigidity, are not permanent after all. Some things will shatter their view of the world.

These things are called life.

Life is originally the same thing as stones. Lonely, numb, and rigid...

Wandering in the primordial ocean, they are irregularly assembled in various structures, sometimes breaking apart, sometimes reuniting, rotating in a lonely cycle.

But this thing called "life" seems to have found a way out in this lonely cycle. It uses those mixed elements to form "organic matter" and begins to construct the basic structure to escape the cycle.

Life began to no longer be lonely. It had "races", defined "categories", and reasons to unite.

They began to become less numb and found ways to perceive the outside world. They saw the first light, heard the first sound, and smelled the first smell... The new perception flowed in the structure of organic matter. They went from unconsciousness to consciousness, from numb sensitivity, and gradually let the world enter their souls.

They begin to become less stiff, and the relief of numbness makes them extremely sensitive and fragile, but this fragility makes them "soft". While enduring the harm inflicted by the world, they are also enjoying the caress of nature.

Because they are no longer numb and stiff, they are less lonely...

These things called "life" have escaped from the cycle of isolation at the cost of being more sensitive and fragile. They have made themselves weak and unable to compete with time. They would rather take only a scoop from the long river of the world in order to turn the meaningless "scale" into a visible beauty.

They had to "take food every moment", became slaves to matter and energy, and raced against time, which they once didn't care about. In this way, they found the meaning of their existence.

When food becomes important, food becomes the meaning of existence.

When reproduction becomes important, reproduction becomes the meaning of existence.

When existence becomes important, existence becomes the meaning of existence.

If there is no meaning, create meaning.

The price they paid actually became what they pursued in the end?
Is the “retreat” from eternity to transience actually the way out of the cycle?
Giving up is the right answer?

Give up eternity and gain the moment.

Give up hardness and gain softness.

Give up independence and gain integration.

Give up insistence and get peace.

……

"If their lives had not changed, they would have continued to sink in the endless river of time, and continue to revolve in the cycle of loneliness, just like us, but they changed..."

"They gave up a lot, things that we never thought of giving up. They paid an unimaginable price and became extremely weak, and thus gained the meaning of existence."

“We seem to have never thought that possession means that we cannot pursue… If we possess eternity, we cannot pursue eternity; if we possess hardness, we cannot pursue hardness; if we possess independence, we cannot pursue independence. If we possess too much, we will lose our purpose.”

“But should we give up these things like they did?”

"To lose everything and then find it all again...what's the point?"

"not understand……"

(End of this chapter)