It's been 4 years since I last ran this piece, and I think it's worth putting up again.
It ain't much to look at.
Two, maybe three pounds of
grayish-white goop. It's not even solid in a living person. More like
Jello that floats around in it's vault.
But it's
amazing. From that sloppy goop has come remarkable stuff. It's sent a
robot to land on a moon of Saturn. It's explored the bottom of our
deepest oceans. Built the Taj Mahal. The Great Wall of China. Painted
the Mona Lisa.
Go listen to the remarkable Bach's
"Toccata and Fugue in D minor". Not just the famous opening 30 seconds
or so, but the whole 9-10 minute thing. That all came from the goop,
long before it was heard or played on an instrument, it was just a
series of electric signals jumping from nerve to nerve. The piece is
over 300 years old. The mind that created it has been dead for over 250
years. And humans will likely be listening to it long after my
great-great-great-grandchildren are dust.
The soul is
there. The heart is amazing, but for all our romantic beliefs about
it, who we really are is floating around in the goop. It's where hate,
love, and everything in between comes from.
It's
capable of terrible evil, such as the Holocaust, and remarkable good.
Look at the outpouring of altruism that follows disasters. I love my
dogs, but if something bad happens to a dog on the next street, they're
not going to care. Yet the goop wants to help people who we've never
met and have no direct impact on our own lives
My
regular readers know I'm interested in maritime history. Why? I have no
idea. It's just been a subject I've loved as long as I can remember.
I've never been in the navy. The family military history consists of
grandparents who served in the army, but never were sent overseas. I can
only assume there is some particular molecular structure in my goop
that makes me interested in it. Or that made me want to treat other
people's goop for a living.
Twin and biological studies
have shown that most of who we are is how we came here. Yes, life
experiences and background count for something, but the goop is most of
it. People with conservative beliefs raise kids who turn out to be
liberals, and vice versa, no matter how hard they may try to pass on
their beliefs.
Coke vs. Pepsi. Dogs vs. Cats. Mac vs.
Windows. I suspect whatever makes us fall on one side or the other of
these great philosophical issues is 95% or more in the goop, and we
just come that way.
Everything you are, have been, and
will be. Have desired, dreamed of, and done. Have felt. It all comes
from a few pounds of goop.
And this fascinates me.
Because, let's face it, we're just another part of the planet. A
collection of complex molecules, electrical impulses, and chemical
reactions. That's all people. Anatomically, all humans are pretty much
the same. And we're not that different from other mammals. The
difference in our genetic sequence vs. that of a mouse ain't much.
And
yet that small amount of difference has led to amazing results. The
ability to think beyond our own biological needs and to see the world
around us for the beauty it contains. To watch a sunset and be in awe,
even though we understand the science behind it. And to look up at the
night sky, and wonder.
And that never bores me.
