He Who Turns The Wheel

 He Who Turns The Wheel turned the Wheel.

The invisible threads that yarn the universe together wielded their power: Planets rotated, galaxies shifted, the universe bulged ever-so-slightly bigger, time went forward, suns burned and life thrived.

He Who Turns The Wheel has always been turning the Wheel. I won’t call Him a god, for that would create arguments – whether He is just a god or The God, or even a false god (He can’t be the one true God, He doesn’t have a beard).

Besides, He is no creator, nor does he concern himself with the daily strife of life, He merely turns the handle that turns the Wheel and lets the yarn do its work.

All He did was Turn the Wheel. Rotation after rotation, time after time.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, He had a thought.

He let it pass. He had no time for thoughts, He had a handle to turn.

It was a significant moment, none the less, for it was the first time He Who Turns The Wheel had ever had a thought in all eternity.

Several millennia passed. And some more millennia, He wasn’t counting, he was just turning.  The thought returned. This time it lasted long enough for Him to notice what the thought was. ‘”What if I stop turning the handle’.

He dismissed the thought, it was too ridiculous.

Nevertheless, a million years later, or maybe many million years later, the thought returned. ‘What would happen if I stopped turning the handle?’ This time the thought was better constructed, and even included a question mark.

He considered the question and granted it an answer. ‘If I stop turning the handle, then everything ends. Time itself is stopped dead, all change will cease, all life will end, no planet will cool from rocky ball to flourishing forest of life, black holes will suck nothing new into their voids, the universe itself will cease to grow, not one particle will change. All things will end.’

He assumed that the answer was definitive, but a billion or so years later the question returned.

‘What would happen if I stopped turning the handle?’

This time His answer to Himself was different. ‘Why DOES constant change need to occur? What would be so wrong if the universe stopped expanding, maybe it’s big enough. Why can’t planets stop spinning, suns stop shining, galaxies stop swimming why shouldn’t everything stand still and enjoy what it is for once, instead of constantly changing.’

And suddenly He Who Turns the Wheel, stopped turning the Wheel, and the universe, time, everything, screeched to a halt.

And here my tale must end, for I am a mortal man, and when the Wheel ceases to turn, I am nothing.