In Spite of Human Being

In the world there is magic.  Not the type that you would think of, that type where you perform some spell and you get something in return.  I do not discount that type of magic, for it is around us, be it positive thought, prayer, wishing, or any of those types of things, you put enough effort towards something, and willing to make the necessary sacrifices and it is likely you will get what you want.  What I am referring to is the type of magic that is, and all you have to do is notice it.

You could call it wonder, you could call it many things, but it is all around us, and we have to but take notice for it to unfold before your very eyes.  We tend to look at things from the perspective of how we can use the world around us.  What value has the land, the trees, the fruits and the nuts, for our own purposes, without realizing that they are not for us, but for the purposes of reproduction of the species.  This escapes us, for we are far too focused on purpose for our own personal gains.  Even when we help someone else, it is usually so we can feel better about ourselves.

This world is not separate from us, it is as much for us humans as it is for the birds and the squirrels.  Yet we continue to see things as we are the makers, when we are the made, and until that changes, we should take the time to see that we are but one of many millions of things that exist not for us, but in spite of us humans in this world.

Hey, I mean we have conquered much of this world, haven’t we.  We domesticated wild dogs, and sheep, and goats, and cats (maybe) and tamed the wild oats so we could have breakfast cereals, and all manor of things that seem to be by our own hands.  By what definition do we consider domestication, I can tell you that it is a very tenuous current we ride, in a matter of minutes past our time, all that we have done will be wiped away and buried beneath the shifting sands of time.

Ah but man’s importance is paramount, it takes precedence over all the natural world.  If that were true, there would be no use for the millions of other creatures, what are those, mere entertainments for our idle minds.  There is a true issue with the patriarchal society that sees things as man vs nature, for there is no competition in nature, it is only exist or not, and what is and what is not, is not of consequence, even man himself.

So if you are feeling down and out, feeling insecure… just hope there is intelligent life somewhere out in space, because there is nothing like that here.

Granted that is not the line exactly from Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life” but it is an accurate paraphrase of it, a little more fitting of the world in which we live.

I know some people will talk of intelligent design, like they can elevate the god myth to modern times.  While I will agree there are holes in evolution’s theory, it fits a bit better than the belief in bronze age gods.  I give a bit of credit to the power of faith, it has its place, and when amplified by hundreds it does seem to work much better.  Like when you raise a barn, if you are alone it is possible, but much easier and quicker when you have a hundred friends along for the ride.

Do not discount the human achievements, they are greater than they may be perceived.  We have somehow engineered our own demise, though it was not intentional, and certainly not what I would call intelligent design.  We have learned of thousands of way to kill each other, for whatever ill conceived rationale we can perceive.  We are not through yet with the wars and hate, so it is likely that we will at least succeed in creating our own extinction, and for that we are unique as far as I can tell in nature.

Each and everything that exist has purpose, though for the life of me I can not see what purpose human’s have in the grand scheme of things.  Why should we have evolved to this degree, only to succeed in the destruction of the self, be it through our emotional distresses, or our need to end each others lives.

Our desires for the others, to have what we do not, is likely the worst disease we have yet to find a vaccine for, and it is likely we will not.  For we do not see this greed as something that is part of our genes, and I have to agree that it is likely it is not.  Still it is learned from the earliest of ages that we must strive to overcome our plight, and be something we are not.  All the while we are living an illusion, a lie we tell ourselves, that we are more important that we really are.

Be it our internal drive to survive, or is it just a tale we are told that allows us to hold ourselves in the highest place, because the fear would consume us if we did not.  We are balanced on the edge of fear, for if we were not so brave and bold as we are, we would not have gotten this far I am afraid.  It is this bravado that has made us, and it will be the same that will be our un-making one day.

Until then, remember this, we are human after all, we live and die, and bleed and cry, and in the end, we are nothing more than the food for generations of myths that have yet to be created.