Originally written Monday, December 13, 2004

“Human brain…universe within… 100 billion neurons… each neuron, a tangled web of electric meaning…” – Timothy Leary in “Hell’s Kitchen”, by Etnica

As human knowledge increases, it is tempting to feel as though we have things figured out. Yet the mystery of our existence still eludes us. The question “Why are we here?” has the same potency that it did 5000 years ago, when the human perception of the universe was so much more limited than it is today.

It’s a question we don’t commonly ask ourselves, because we have insulated ourselves from our connection to nature. There is a great distance between the food that we eat and the animals and plants that are that food. Seasons do not affect us as they do wild animals. We often spend the majority of our days inside, with only brief moments outdoors en route to the car, or from the car to work. When it’s cold outside, this only becomes more common.

This lets us avoid hardship, but also hard questions. We do not wish to be confronted by the basics of life and death, because they force us to ask these difficult questions. Killing to eat brings thoughts of death. Shivering in the cold is a reminder of our vulnerability.

Our separation from nature does not just allow us to escape thoughts of mortality, but it also breaks the spiritual connection we have with nature. Avoiding killing our food also lets us forget that it is life that sustains us. Avoiding the chill of the outdoors means we miss out on the reflections about our place in the universe that a star-filled sky can inspire.

In spite of our attempts to make our existence seem commonplace, to make our spirituality something that should be expressed only within the walls of religion, and to sever our ties with the vast interconnected web of nature, the mystery of our existence remains as deep as ever. The 100 billion neurons in our brains are like 100 billion stars in a galaxy, or 100 billion galaxies in our universe. In numbers alone they are beyond our comprehension.

They are connected nonetheless. We are made of atoms created in the nuclear furnace of stars just like the ones that lie across the sky on a cold winter’s night. Molecules in our bodies interact with each other in an intricate, dependent web not so different from the complex ecologies that support us and other creatures on this planet. We share a deep connection with each other, with all life, with the earth, and with the universe.

Comment from Alevo:

Similar musings are given in the opening to Thomas Homer Dixon’s The Ingenguity Gap. Namely, that human kind has deposited itself within an artificial realm of its own devining. The city is an exercise in human creature comfort. As we recede deeper within its walls – we lose touch with a great many things. Humankind’s own narcisim often prevents us from confronting our own worst nightmare – that we are (ring-ring). . . hold on here, I have to take this call.

Originally written Wednesday, November 24, 2004

What is the point?

What is the point of writing a letter to the editor? What is the point of challenging an assumption or having a discussion? What is the point of me writing this?

Why bother writing about events in Iraq as I have done here? After all, nothing I say will change what is happening there.

Anyone who seeks to change things through knowledge and information is faced with that discouraging question: what’s the point?

I think the answer is simple: the point is to influence a decision, however small, made by somebody in some place at some time.

Change occurs as a consequence of actions. People’s actions are based either wholly or in part on decisions. A key human trait is the ability to make decisions based on knowledge, not just on experience.

So by speaking, writing, and educating, change can happen. The smallest decision can be worth the effort that influencing that decision took.

A case in point: a colleague, Scott, told me he watched Fahrenheit 9/11. He said that he would likely not have watched it were it not for our conversations about current events.

Deciding to watch a particular movie is a minor decision, but change ripples outwards from small events. Decisions to read a particular book or see a certain movie have changed people’s lives.

So if you are out there trying to make a difference and you ask yourself this question, or others ask it of you: don’t be disheartened. The positive effect you have might be far larger than you think!