Wanderer

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”

-C.S. Lewis

The perils of the sea threaten the wanderer. The currents carry the wanderer to different parts of the ocean, different worlds. Whales with their love songs and lullabies become hungry patrons. Drifting. Drifting. Not knowing the next move. Not knowing which direction is up or which is down. Swirling endlessly in the ocean with a goal to obtain purpose. And yet, the wanderer has faith in its destination. It has faith in the current even if the journey is rough. The current promises a destination.

Where is the current taking me?

The seemingly bottomless pit yawns beneath the plankton. Humans have not yet explored the vast amount of the darkness beneath. They don’t know the horrors that lurk beneath. They don’t know the blinding darkness. They don’t know the crushing pressure that grows heavier the blinder they get. Humans have no idea that the gaping hole of the ocean threatens to swallow them whole, just like plankton.

Sending oneself over the edge and into oblivion is not bliss. All that is left is the sound of silence. A deafening sound. Lonely, anxious, pressing. There is no knowledge or remembrance of light. Light is an ache that can never be satisfied once oblivion overcomes the senses. All that is accepted is the current. There is no knowledge of where it is going. Is there even a destination? Is there even an end to oblivion?

The distant sounds of love songs and lullabies seem like a joke. They don’t mean it. They just want others to know. The comforting brush of the current is the only thing that is tethering to a timeless, spaceless end. The current is the only purpose. Carrying and pushing to an end that isn’t even clear. This is the only comfort.

The current provides its own song. Listening to the love songs and lullabies of others just makes the oblivion emptier. Why don’t I have that? Why don’t I have a song that fills my heart and fuels my direction?

Where is this current taking me?

Darkness leaves the thoughts to hang from its rafters. Saturated with unanswerable questions and doubt. The current pulls. Follow.

The deepest, darkest holes in the ocean are where planktos, wanderers, get the most nutrients, feasting and feeding predators. Floating through the darkness, unaware of the direction they are going, planktos grab at whatever nutrients they can get. Small and “insignificant” creatures need food too. A lovely meal of phytoplankton will fill the zooplankton’s belly. Never mind that they are something like cousins. Something like jealousy may fill the zooplanton’s mind. Phytoplankton get to taste the sun’s rays and actually become that energy. All a zooplankton can do is eat them until they are so close to being fulfilled, but not quite. Or, unless a larger predator comes around and ends it all for the zooplankton.

Hopefully, at least one of the planktos will grow out of its “small and insignificant” stage. Maybe they can move past a current-defining journey and chart their own path. Maybe they will be the ones to be filled with a light unending. Maybe they will become big enough to swim against the current. If only the wanderer knew.

A monster with a lightbulb hanging from its head and a yawning, sharp, abyss for a mouth passes by, eating the plankton's neighbors. Some may make it out. The larger predators have a hard time properly digesting their food. And still. And still the plankton floats. Unable to move save for the current and movements of predators nearby. Trapped in a never ending darkness. A snail-slug-type creature resting on the ocean floor stops for a light snack. Another bunch of neighbors swallowed for the greater good. What is the greater good?

Where is the current taking me?

A shift in current moves the wanderer upwards. Still dark. But not blinding darkness. Different creatures surround the plankton, new Grim Reapers. There is one advantage to being small and off the ocean floor, larger predators can’t eat all of them. Well, except for the smaller fish. They may be small, but they can move against the current if they wish. And eat as many plankton as they want.

Closer to the light, but not close enough. Still being pushed around by the current. Still being pushed around. Phytoplankton emerge and the zooplankton decide to partake. Same thing. Same type of day. Some of the zooplankton grow big enough to actually eat smaller zooplankton. They become more obscure. They develop defense mechanisms. Crabs and lobsters. Those are the lucky ones. The zooplanktons that are entered by crab and lobster larvae get to be one of the big-shots of the ocean. They get to chart their own path. Sure, predators are more likely to eat them, but at least they are not invisible.

Another shift in the current and plankton, zooplankton and phytoplankton alike, begin their ascent, closer to the light.

The light is brighter up here. The sun’s rays penetrate the rough surface and make it down far enough to start to warm the wanderer. Comfort in the light, in the actual sunlight, fulfills more than the darkness ever could. The plankton know that one strong current could pass through here and take them spiraling back towards the bottom.

The plankton make their final ascent to the top. Passing predators, prey, and brethren alike, the plankton rushes to the top with a surge of the current. The sunlight is blinding, but somehow, the plankton rejoices in the newfound light. They made it. The crashing waves topple one plankton atop another, but they made it. Rejoicing in the newfound energy of the light, the plankton provide a significant amount of oxygen for all life on Earth. Their role to travel through darkness and danger is worth it in the end. The current brought them here. Doubt and fear of the darkness and the predators means nothing now. The threat of darkness means nothing now that light overcomes the surface. Now, the most insignificant of creatures rejoices in the simplicity of sunlight, and gives life its breath. The wanderer has a purpose after all.

The current has brought me here.