You make me think of the Tibetan monks creating sand paintings. They spend an entire week meticulously coloring sand then tapping it into this intricate mandala. Then there is a short ceremony, during which they destroy it.

This is a part of a teaching on impermanence. We create for the act of creating, not for something it is supposed to accomplish for us. We live for the act of living, even though it always ends in death. To say that doing something isn't worthwhile if it doesn't last is profound nihilism.

We are the great work that doesn't last!