The association of reading and school work killed many of our desires to get lost in a good piece of literature. That association only grew stronger as we entered college, with numerous pages of reading assigned each night. Not only did we lack any desire, but now we had no time in which we could.

People often dismiss theater with the excuse, “This major is easy.” That’s such an oversimplified and unfair way out. The truth is, no major is easy. Every major faces its own challenges, pressures and unique demands.

While people outside of the fanbase see us as poor, unfortunate souls grasping onto false hope, they overlook the characteristics that make a Cowboys fan a Cowboys fan — and believe it or not there are many appealing characteristics and qualities about us.

At its root, whimsy is not an aesthetic. True whimsy is older, deeper, stranger than that. It is the astonishment that we are here at all, alive, breathing, conscious, inside a universe that by all accounts should not have rolled the dice in our favor.

People now turn to AI as a data analyst, tutor, dietitian and surprisingly even for emotional support. But play therapist? That’s where things get dangerous. At first glance, this may sound reasonable. After all, AI doesn’t judge or bring its own feelings into the mix, but that’s the problem. AI isn’t capable of emotions or empathy, qualities that are essential in therapy.

At the edge of a black hole, we will drag ourselves into a pit that we or our mockeries of creation will not escape. We will have given consciousness to something that cannot think, eyes to a being that will never truly see and a mouth to something that will never be able to scream.