Musings #3

Dear,

Aha! You have come back. I did not scare you away, then? I know I say things that sound terrible. Would you consider a tiger terrible? Is it not a natural thing? The Plague that took so many away, was it not natural? But enough of that for now. Now, I want to speak of beautiful and dignified things.

Scientists are beginning to come to the understanding that the basic building blocks of physical life come from the heavens. Many of the most essential organic molecules, including most of the amino acids and the bases found in DNA have been found in meteorites. Water is common in the Universe, and is one of the main constituents of comets. What this means is that both the medium in which life as we recognize it has come to be, and the building blocks of which it is constructed have come from outer space. The most obvious answer to this conundrum is that both the water and the organic compounds have condensed in the cooling-down process of huge, interstellar gas clouds consisting of the dust of dead stars. This gas has then collapsed and formed massive objects due to the force of gravity. Astronomers have begun to discover planets around other stars, and the number are currently in the thousands. A good percentage of them lie in the “habitable zone”, in relation to the star. So, one can imagine that there are planets, like fertile sun-nourished soil, floating around stars, and the physical necessities of life, like seeds and the life-giving water, being carried by objects that travel through the cold, silent space, sometimes crashing into a planet and leaving their vital payload, not unlike pollination. The star will shine, and the brew will bubble, and one day, perhaps, there will be lushness, sounds of creatures and some sort of plants and flowers. Is it not beautiful?

Scientists have long been puzzled by the fact that all the physical constants of Nature seem to be fine-tuned for life. Were they changed, even by just a little bit, life as we know it could not exist. Curious? Some try to explain this fact by putting forward a multiverse theory, in which all possible universes exist side by side, and we happen to be in one where the numbers turned out right. Otherwise we could not observe it, they say. Does it sound to you like they want to explain something else away? Many humans want to feel special. They want to feel that they are the biggest and the best and the most unique. Some astronomers want humanity to be something special, a special dispensation from a chaotic, random Universe, something unique and alone and unlike anything else. Often, humans choose a theory, and then they make the facts fit. In many cases, this is how we explain things. Atheist, Theist, and others, all construct their world-views on faith in something, whether it be what they consider to be theirs, reason, senses, feelings, something external, or something else. Looking at the intellectual arguments against and in favour of Higher Powers, of them all, the agnostic could be said to be the wisest. He says: “I do not know”, as long as he does not know. It has been said that he who speaks does not know, and he who knows does not speak.

Astronomers agree that in the centres of all galaxies reside a black hole, an object so massive that not even light can escape its gravity. It is holding the galaxy together, so to speak. In the middle is the unknown, the unobservable. It can, however, be felt. Is this not, at the same time, terrifying and fantastic?

On the steppes of Africa, in the days of old, if a mother gave birth to a deformed child, she would leave it for the animals to find. She instinctively understood that letting the child live would endanger the whole tribe. No mother likes to leave her new-born child under a tree, but she considered it necessary. I am sure that she cried. But, in time, her mind would forget and only her heart would remember, and she would bear her sorrow with dignity. She could try to have another child. Life continued. Life is resilient. Life is strong.

Trying to impose our limited understanding on Nature will always leave us blind. One must respect what one is working with, or one will more than likely destroy it, or fool oneself. We have to stay open. Our society has taken the responsibility out of the hands of Nature. Should we not try to see how She takes care, and has taken care of that responsibility, and try to mold our own ways after Hers? Is it inconceivable that a Darwinian selection process is also operating on a planetary scale? That, if we do not learn to live in harmony with each other and Nature, by removing or controlling everything that disturbs that harmony, we will not deserve to live? That, then, we will not have lived up to the responsibility that we have greedily taken out of Natures hands?

A fool, in his eagerness to sound wise, entangles himself in delusion. A wise man holds on to nothing longer than is needed. In that way, he can start anew with every breath. He understands that the foundation of existence is ever untouched, ever pure, ever unsullied by thoughts, deeds and words. He understands that it is unruffled by even the largest cosmic cataclysms. We are alive. We are alive. Life wants to live, and life wants to grow. We see this in Nature. It is a far stronger force than our comparably puny wills. It seems to be, so to speak, inherent in the Universe in which we find ourselves.

In the times of old, when the elder Eskimos felt that they had imparted their wisdom, their stories and their strength, cracked their last joke, and felt that they were a burden to their tribe, and felt that it was responsible to leave the tribe, that it could take care of itself, they would say a grateful good-bye, and walk onto the ice. There they would leave life in the silent company of their selves, the Sun and the wind, and, depending on how disciplined their minds were, thinking about what they wanted. I imagine they thought about their lives, and ended them in fasting, calm and composed. Thus they left life with their dignity intact. The Aboriginals of Australia would go and sit under a tree. I think it highly likely that all indigenous people have done similar things. The elephants walk alone to their graveyards when they feel it is time, there to lay down to rest. Other animals do similar things. Humans and animals have an inner urge to preserve, regain, and defend their dignity. No-one who respects the circle of life and death wants to die in their own waste in a stuffy room, desperately clinging to something that cannot be held. We are born to be free, and, after a life lived free and strong, to freely leave life under the Sun, in the fresh air, at the time of our own choosing. To me, this is as natural as life itself. May it one day be possible for all to live and to leave in that way.

What was was what was, what is is what is, and what will be is what will be.

Can our longing not build? Can our longing not destroy? We are expressions of Life, something we do not understand. Something immeasurably greater than us. Yet it tenderly lives in us. A plant nurtured will grow, a seed watered will sprout. May you have health and strength always.