I am going to try not to get too existential or philosophical today but I've been thinking recently about how funny it really is to be a human being. Comparing humans to almost every other relatively well developed life form is an exercise in parody. Yet the things that set us apart from other earthly co-inhabitants are not necessarily that vast.
All animals have one main purpose in life, to survive. In the case of human beings, we all survive in our own way. You've heard people say "I can't live without (fill in the blank)", and often that necessity of life is something ridiculous like mustache wax, or a subscription to Cosmo. In reality what we can't live without is food and water and that's probably about it. So we go about our animal existence with the sole purpose of survival occupying most of our time. Or does it? What about survival requires us to covet things that we don't really need; or makes us self medicate with alcohol, tobacco, food, or drugs, to feel better; or makes us get angry and throw small pets at the TV when the Bills lose! It doesn't make any real sense does it?
If all we did was focus on survival like lions, tigers, and bears, (oh my!), life would be much simpler. The gift of cognitive thought is what separates us most significantly from other animals. This allows us to think, reason and remember, unlike an amoeba as an example. Maybe some days life would be easier as an amoeba, there you are floating along in an unknown vat of liquid. You travel only as the ebb and flow of the liquid that surrounds you moves. You think nothing, you feel nothing, you have nothing, and your entire existence can last only seconds. Is this better? Are amoeba's happy? Do they know what happy is? Who cares, in the end life for them is the same as it is for us. It starts with some form of birth and ends in some form of death, and the middle part is completely filled with survival and the occasional wedge of cheesecake! Okay maybe amoeba's don't eat cheesecake but I like to think that they would if they could!
I am happy to have the ability to think like a human (and I really like the opposable thumb thing too, it makes the remote control so much more enjoyable) and I think for now I'll keep working through life and figuring out the little nuances until the end comes.
As a kid I was a huge fan of the book series by Douglas Adams called The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I have never forgotten one passage about a whale free falling from space at rapid speeds. I laughed when I was a kid and it still makes me laugh, but it is also a very interesting way of metaphorically over simplifying our existence.
It is important to note that suddenly, and against all probability, a Sperm Whale had been called into existence, several miles above the surface of an alien planet and since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity. This is what it thought, as it fell:
The Whale: Ahhh! Woooh! What's happening? Who am I? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Okay okay, calm down calm down get a grip now. Ooh, this is an interesting sensation. What is it? Its a sort of tingling in my... well I suppose I better start finding names for things. Lets call it a... tail! Yeah! Tail! And hey, what's this roaring sound, whooshing past what I'm suddenly gonna call my head? Wind! Is that a good name? It'll do. Yeah, this is really exciting. I'm dizzy with anticipation! Or is it the wind? There's an awful lot of that now isn't it? And what's this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground'! That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me? Hello Ground!
That's all for now!
