Deity did not remember waking, ever, or having come into existence, but it had.  Its initial memory was reflecting on curiosity, difficult as, other than itself, there was nothing about which to be curious, but there was a tension between that infinite boredom that was its essence and curiosity concerning what it was and from whence it came, a curiosity insatiable because of the dearth of answers, a dearth which could seemingly never be satisfied thus imposing boundaries that bound it, the only boundaries there were, the only boundaries there had ever been. 

Fortunately, time did not exist, nor did space, so the boredom was not as overpowering as it might have been.  Reflection on introspection, somewhat vacuous at best, was all there was to entertain Deity.  And perhaps reflections on boredom, on the nature of boredom, accompanied perhaps, by speculation on whether or not boredom might not have complex components.  What if boredom was a composite of other factors, but then, Deity knew nothing of either composites or factors, or anything really.  It knew everything there was to know, which was virtually nothing, but virtually nothing was not the same as nothing, so, in that sense, it was concurrently omniscient.

Then, after forever as then defined, although there being no one to define it, it was undefinably ineffable, of a sudden, everything, which prior to that instant had been nothing, exploded.  A tiny explosion at first, but growing geometrically, growing omnidirectionally, matter and energy and radiation seemingly forming from what some might someday describe as inchoate ether, and Deity experienced surprise.  Not its first surprise; that had occurred the instant outside of time when it had attained sentience, albeit with nothing about which to be sentient.  But this was its first sort of external surprise, although external was not the appropriate concept as it had been Deity that had exploded, perhaps as a result of uncontainable curiosity meeting immovable boredom, and thus it was Deity itself that was expanding geometrically and omnidirectionally, morphing from Deity to Divinity, and wondering whether it could exercise any control over what appeared to be a deterministic phenomenon, one based solely on reaction and counter reaction, infinitely amplified; well, almost infinitely.  And the concept of volition entered Divinity’s lexicon, a very brief lexicon just then, but with a great deal of potential for future growth now that future was a concept, and past, and present.

Confusion reigned with chaos as its consort, or perhaps, visa versa, as determinism played with volition in Divinity’s imagination and boredom radiated into apparent nothingness, but apparent nothingness is not the same as nothingness, even if solely comprised of echoes and shadows playing at becoming rainbows and fireflies, well, perhaps someday. 

Reflection and introspection gave way to a struggle to contain and control the emerging expansion, but then immediately, or almost immediately, which was obviously different than immediately, reflection returned to speculate over what had happened, and whether why was relevant, or existed at all, which of course resulted in the birth of why, and curiosity broke its tensional tie with boredom.  Not that boredom disappeared, but it was somewhat subsumed, at least for a while, as eternity and infinity blossomed and grew, and Divinity entered its infancy, bereft of either a maternal or paternal influence, … at least as far as it knew.

And thus ended the first instant of unrecorded time, with many, many more instants to come, instants in diverse colors and flavors, instants with quite a few consequences, some of which, perhaps, were eventually collected into what would someday be referred to as a zeptosecond, and zeptoseconds into almost eternal nanoseconds, and then, well seconds and minutes, until finally, the temporal and spatial cumulous conformed what some would refer to as the first day, although, of course, Divinity was not among them.

But that’s a different story.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2023; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen).  Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales.  He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review, available at Substack.com, a commentator on Radio Guasca FM, and an occasional contributor to the regional magazine, el Observador.  He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation and linguistic studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies).  However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta and cosmogony.  He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.