This Temporary Life

Your life, and mine, and all lives in fact are, by their nature, anomalous. When you think about the sheer amount of circumstances needed to fall into place for you to exist . . . well let's just say that's it's a lot more likely that a particular human being won't exist than will.
Not a single one of your ancestors failed to breed.  Each one of them survived infancy and childhood.  Every one one of them lived to adulthood.  Don't get me started on the math required to demonstrate that you exist solely because each one of your ancestors mated with your specific other ancestor (out of a smorgasbord of other potential mates) at that exact moment back to the beginning of time.

You are the product of countless generations.  You are at the sword's point of evolution.  You are an anomaly.  We all are.

So when you consider the actual living miracle it is that you're here, don't forget that every other one of your planet-mates is in the same boat.  From your family members, to your neighbors sure, but also to those starving children in some far away land that you've seen pictures of but would rather click past than be troubled by.  It's not just you.  None of us likes to be sad, and thoughts like that make us sad.

We occupy our little place on Earth for a time so quick, it's practically over the moment we realize it is.  When you're a kid, a hundred years is a thousand lifetimes away, when you get a bit older you realize it's just one.  At a certain point, your vitality is behind you.  Your youth and energy are trapped in photographs yellowing in an album somewhere.

If you're of the fortunate ones, you get to see your skin sag and hair whiten, you're blessed with memories that may need a jump-start every once in a while but are long and rich.  My Dad has always said "Age is a gift denied to so many".  Ain't that the truth.  As much as we shake our heads and feel sympathy for our elderly brethren, they are the fortunate ones.

This life is temporary no matter how long we shuffle this mortal coil.  Just being here is a miracle left unfulfilled by literally trillions of other potential people - who knows how many geniuses we're never to hear of.  Every decision you make in your life should honor that evolutionary miracle that puts you behind a computer reading this.  Every choice you make for your own life should also take into consideration the fact that every other being on this Earth is as much of a miracle as you and should be treated as such.

Your whole life is spent in transit - from the moment you slip into the world to the moment you slip out.  It's easy in this make-believe world of ours to put so much importance on details that we forget the big picture.  We spend so much time living our lives that we forget to be alive.

In this temporary life of yours remember to live.  Stopping to smell the roses was a cliche to me until I moved into a house with rose bushes.

Stop Stupiding Up the Planet

 Here's the thing - everybody's good at something.

Some of us are good at studying.

Some of us are good at sports - like gymnastics . . .

Others of us are good at eating bananas . . .

. . . okay, maybe that's a little much.

But the point is, we all have different strengths and talents.
Some people - scientists like Mr. Darwin for example -

- are good at being smart.

While people like Mr. Limbaugh -

- are really good at being pig-headed, ass-faced drug addicts who cater to the lowest common denominator and pander to the extremists by playing their own fears against them.

See?  Everyone's good at something.

Every time I read the comment sections on news articles about Evolution online, I get the sense that the people who are really good at eating bananas are fancying themselves as being on the same level as Mr. Darwin.

Well, they're not.

These people get scared because science seems to be contradicting certain deep-seeded beliefs.  They say that humans and apes are not descended from the same ancestor.

Although I wouldn't mind sharing an ancestor with the fetching Janet here - I'm sure you'll agree.

As a species, we have a lot of beliefs about nature and the Earth - some of them substantiated by science, some of them refuted.

The thing is however, that I can assure you that believing in something or not, doesn't change or make true or false something that exists or doesn't exist of its own accord.

My humble request would be that we let the people who are good at being smart take care of the smart stuff and led the banana eaters take care of the bananas.

Taking the Fun Out of Fundamental

It has occurred to me that the most fundamentally, intractably, and aggressively religious among us don't understand life. 

You know the ones.

They want to run your life.  They want to tell you how to live.  They want to tell you how evil you are and why you're going to go to hell.  They don't believe in a separation of church and state unless it's someone else's church from their state.

Some of them want to hurt you.

They are distrustful of intellect, let alone intellectuals.  They flat out hate science right up until they need it to save their lives.

They will tell you it's us against them.  Of course the ones you're talking to are always the "us" in the equation no matter where on Earth you're standing.

I have realized these people don't understand life because they think they are going to live in one capacity or another forever.

It's awfully easy to be glib with someone else's life if you don't believe in death.

No matter your belief, try a little experiment - spend one day as though there is no heaven.  Spend that day savoring the light in the present that only exists in that moment.

Try to have a little fun.  Pass on the fundamentalism.

Smart Ain't Stupid

I remember, albeit perhaps through rose colored glasses, when being an intellectual wasn't a liability for a politician.  Shoot, I remember when having an intellect wasn't a liability.

We live in this incredibly dumbed down era, a time when even the basest of us have been elevated to the status of genius by "opinion polls" that ask people what they "believe" in, as though it has some bearing on whether or not it exists.

My favorite such poll was one on CNN.com that queried visitors as to whether or not they "believed" in evolution.  Sadly, shockingly, and stupidly it was a split vote.

I'm going to lay some truth on the internet here:

1. Evolution is real
2. Climate change is real
3. Natural disasters don't occur because anyone is mad at you
4. It's none of your business if two people who aren't you get it on
5. We really need to stop wasting time on these subjects

I don't think it's okay to not teach our kids things out of the fear that someone might be offended by the incontrovertible truth of scientific reality.

I don't think it's okay that a large and vocal group ridicules and beats down science with one voice and then demands science saves their lives when sickness comes calling.

I don't think it's okay that news outlets offer anything other than the facts and as near an objective story as humanly possible.

I don't think it's okay to hate one's neighbor while demanding love and kindness for oneself.

A well known and well respected politician died recently here in Canada.  His passing unified people in sadness, regret, and sympathy.  Whether people agreed with his politics or not, citizens everywhere respected the man.  He left a letter to Canadians that was both heart-felt and inspiring.  His last words in his letter were:

• "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." - Jack Layton

Wise words from a wise man.  Jack Layton wasn't my politician, and the NDP isn't my party, but I am certainly proud to have had my politics impacted by a man (and other men and women) who aren't afraid to be wise.