My ongoing block... new post: Deserving...

[Richard Sutton]

Hi, all! I've been very quiet since November. Even my keyboard hasn't been clacking away merrily, the way it used to. There are two books sitting there waiting for me... but reality intrudes more frequently than it used to. I managed to write a short piece this morning that kind of summed up my disparate thinking the past few months. For those interested, here's the link: Deserving
Warning: Not Cheerful

 

[Patricia D]

Not cheerful, Richard, but not depressing either. I recently attended a lecture by a noted astronomer - I know very little about astronomy but a friend wanted to go. I was blown away by the scale of the universe now visible to us thanks to telescopes that see outside the band of light rays our eyes have evolved to see. One hundred billion other galaxies, a hundred billion planets in our not terribly large galaxy, the Milky Way. The numbers, are so far beyond my comprehension. Another galaxy is crossing ours right now, and we will eventually merge with them, but not to worry. Space is mostly empty. Our sun is an orange on the podium; the earth is a pea halfway up the auditorium. So what does this have to do with humans deserving or not deserving to survive on Earth? Consider the scale. Deserving or not - does it matter? Enjoy the day, be kind, help out where you can. That's really all we can do.

 

[Amber]

Eh .... it wasn't real sad.

I never did totally buy into the whole humans are a superior race nonsense. The whole idea that we are better because we're different from animals? Well, not sure we're different from animals ... not sure it's better to be different from animals ... and although we've done amazing things ... amazing things are done all the time without us as well. Nature is a great artist.

 

[Richard Sutton]

Yeah, I guess we Earthlife have to believe each of us is a pinnacle of some sort. Makes all kinds of trouble for everyone else. Patricia's got it. We should all settle down, enjoy a nice meal and a drink and play some music when the chores are all done. It doesn't get much better than that and doesn't cause pain to any other living thing... except for the ones you might be eating. Meanwhile, the stories float around in the air near us. Pluck one, clean it up nicely and share it around the circle. It's what we do.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

On the other hand.....