The Infinite Blue

         Have you ever gazed at the sky above and wondered what lies beyond? Have you ever stared at the ocean and wondered what hides beneath?
         Sometimes, it seems that the world deliberately hides from curious eyes the terrors and wonders of the deep and the infinite. It is almost as if our very presence in those extremes is unwanted. Why else would the morning sky be hidden behind a curtain of blue? Or the world beneath the sea by a wall of blue? This cover of blue is the reason that the greatest depths in the world is yet unseen by human eyes. As for the infinite, how can one begin to understand that which does not even end? Alas, the infinite - that enormously vast space we call universe - will probably forever be a mystery behind the blue.
         When you put water in your cupped hands, you clearly see your palm through the water. When you put water in a pail, you clearly see the pail's bottom. So why can you not see the bottom if the water is vast enough? Why do we not see the ocean floor? Why do we not see that which seems to be the closest to us?
         Infinity is a very wondrous yet disturbing concept. It amazes, yet terrifies at the same time. That is because it is the very definition of the unknown. What else is there more unknowable than that which you cannot even grasp? The lack of understanding, the lack of meaning - that is what makes infinity infinity. That is what makes it amazing. That is what makes it terrifying.
         As I gaze into the infinite and gaze into the deep, I somehow found myself staring at the point in the horizon where they meet. It is the place where the sky and the sea join together and make a wall of blue. It is where they entwine, and suddenly you do not even know which is which. It is then that I realize that right then and there, in that very moment, the deep and the infinite are one. The irreconcilable differences and the vast gap between them are - in that split second of time, that very precious moment - becoming instead the glue that binds two different worlds together.
         The very thing that kept them infinitely far apart made them so infinitely close to each other as to become one.
         But moments such as that one never last.
         Pretty soon, what heartbeats ago acted as their glue will realize what they really are and tear the sea and sky apart.
         Right before my eyes, as the world becomes dark, I see the sky blue turn to red, and the sea blue turn to gray. I see them slowly, gradually, yet inevitably torn apart by their differences. I see them become violent. I see them become sad.
         As I gaze into their visage, no longer blue, I once again see how far and impossible they are, and I close my eyes and smile.
         They are beautiful because they are gone.
         They are the infinite because they ended.