I am
approaching my ninth decade and the reality is that I am well past my sell-by date. As I look back at my life, the only one I
can truly judge, I would like to be able to make an inspirational statement
about the richness of human existence; but I can’t.
The reality
has already been expressed by the Bard:
Tomorrow,
and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in
this petty pace from day to day,
To the
last syllable of recorded time;
And all
our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way
to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s
but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then
is heard no more. It is a tale
By an
idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying
nothing.
I do value
my time left upon this stage. I enjoy
time spent with my wife, reading books, eating good food, and experiencing the
beauty of this earthly environment; but life has no real meaning beyond
personal gratification.
We humans
claim to be intelligent creatures; but as compared to what? Chimpanzees?
The human
race goes from war to war; from political chaos to political chaos; from ethnic
cleansing to ethnic cleansing; the rich ignore the poor, the sick, and the underprivileged;
violence is most often racially or
religiously motivated; religious ignorance permeates the human condition; the
human race has brought most wild creatures to extinction, and we have decimated the
environment.
We are a violent
species – one of the few that regularly kill our own kind; We are a virus on this earth and propagating at
an unsustainable rate.
Humans are on
this earth as an accident of chaos. The
universe doesn’t know we are here or care.
the Ol'Buzzard
Focus on what you enjoy and just let go of the rest!
ReplyDeleteWhen our civilization disappears off the earth, as other civilizations have over the eons, the earth will heal itself and we will be forgotten. Every species is driven to reproduce itself which is fine unless you ask why we should, to what purpose. I'm not sure we have a purpose for being here
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