Tom Hardy and a Puppy Visit Silex Springs in Yellowstone National Park

"Tom," said the puppy, licking its nose, "what is it like to be able to contemplate your own mortality?" And Tom replied, "It's tremendous and it's tragic, puppy." And the puppy asked, "What do you mean?" And Tom explained, "Well, on the one hand, knowing you will die someday has the capacity to infuse every moment with poignant meaning, because you know it is an extraordinary thing to be part of a rare sliver of time and space in a vast universe where intelligent life is a vanishingly infinitesimal possibility. But, on the other hand, knowing you will die someday has the capacity to make the time spent scrabbling to survive, the profusion of which varies from individual life to individual life, feel empty of meaning. You must work, to eat and to shelter yourself, whether working means sourcing your own food and building your own shelter, or working a job, even a job you love, to earn money to access those things, or working within a hostile system to access resources you can't provide for yourself. You must survive to survive, and some parts of survival can feel wasteful, even though they are necessary, because they steal from us so many moments that we want to be rich with existential meaning." The puppy tilted its head at Tom and blinked. "Cats don't wear YOLO gear because they have nine lives," said the puppy. And Tom laughed.