OoLNA: Of “Life, the Universe, and Everything” (D. Adams)…
Blessings my fellow Lunatic Naked Apes! Welcome to the ‘Dent’ issue…!
In my most humble opinion, the greatest satirical analysis of the human animal ever, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy -D. Adams is without doubt, at the very least a ‘must read’ for anyone with even a slightly more developed sense of humor than Koko, the perhaps not so average gorilla…!
Who, incidentally, has an urgent, important message…!! As ‘friends who’ve yet to actually connect’, I knew Koko was adept and at sign language; I didn’t realize she was such an insightful environmental activist!! And while she is quite deadly seriously right, my socially twisted brain can’t ignore the freakin hilarity (as well as tragic irony) in a gorilla justifiably questioning human intelligence!! A big ‘shout out’ ‘thank you’ to our federal elected employees, who, in the name of ‘leadership’ have been working hard for quite some time now, to usher in this specific conditional era!! Without them, we would have simply kept miserably evolving…!! Dougie, are you laughing yourself into the ‘5th dimension’ or crying in your tea? I imagine a fair bit of both, brother (no, sadly not ‘bio’…), as am I!!
Wow, that was a ‘subject merry-go-round’!! To think I started with no real clear idea of where this was going! So, because it’s Christmas Eve, and, I have a grey-collar 6p-3a shift, I would really like to explore Mr. Adams’ proposition that dolphins may be in competition with humans (I say ‘may’ because I suspect they clinched it by the turn of the last century) for ‘top rung’ of the evolutionary ladder. His reasoning, based upon societal accomplishment, is not only brilliant, but, in my opinion, irrefutable. “For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.”
Stop.
Read that last bit again, and consider just what, exactly, it is saying.
Reflect on, for even just a moment, an average day in a dolphin’s life; wake up, breakfast on sashimi, play with siblings & friends, beat up an occasional shark, generally just frolic & sport in the sun & surf, enjoying life…!!
Pause…
Now, lastly, given that the fundamental ‘nature of life’, by definition, must be consistent across ALL life, take a minute or three to consider your own ‘tomorrow’ or most any other day, for that matter…
And then, I refer you back to the first image of this discourse, the ‘cover art’ for The Guide.
All of which leads me back to a favored philosophy that I have been developing for a couple of decades…
In my experience…
Life is about growing spiritually, having fun, and helping others to do the same! Which, essentially, are three different ways of describing exactly the same thing.
Ok, back to the science lab… it is already definitively established that each cell of our own bodies maintains only a few minutes’ worth of ‘critical supply’ (nutrients, etc), relying on its surrounding community for continuous support. When all the cells live harmoniously, we enjoy ‘good health’. But when cells get ‘greedy’ and start consuming all available resources with total disregard for neighbors, we find what we label ‘cancer’. This dynamic, of course, replicates itself throughout Life, as exemplified by the behavior of any invasive species, from the viral level all the up to our own current state of society, which is methodically ‘trashing’ the planet to satiate our childish desires, while essentially hobbling, where not actually eliminating, the evolutionary process’ of the human species.
And no, as one who once explored the heart of it, technology, while it is extremely clever, is, in fact, NOT evolution, despite the misguided meanderings of certain likely ‘behind the curve’ individuals! In fact, while tech itself is mostly just a tool, like a hammer or gun, we are choosing to abuse it to our extreme disadvantage. As a joke my son recently found online rather pointedly admonishes younger generations: ‘Think you’re so smart? Your grandfather’s auto owner’s manual told him how to gap the spark plugs; yours cautions you not to drink the coolant…!’
No, I do not think that young people are ‘dumb’ or any way ‘intellectually challenged’. Most I have had the pleasure of communicating with are, at worst, seriously misled. Many are opening eyes to reality, even. What I do believe is that at some point, while the theory survives, the practice of encouraging, guiding, and expecting our kids to be ‘more than we’ got lost, and without that simple common societal fixation, definitive de-evolution is literally inevitable!
It’s kind of like the process that led to the ‘extinction’ of ‘common sense’. ‘Common sense’ never was. What started out, as I recall the term dying in my youth, was known as ‘good sense’, and it was considered a social responsibility to make that one of the core teachings all parents provided their children. Because everyone (more or less) was at least attempting to, most of our predecessors, being taught young, had ‘good sense’. As time went on, however, as we LNA’s so often do, society itself came to adopt the word ‘common’ over ‘good’ (it was more ‘chic’, ‘our gen’, ‘forward’… language is one of the most powerful tools we tend to, mostly thoughtlessly, abuse), and successive (recent) generations never knew ‘good sense’, which was previously but largely no longer taught, only ‘common sense’ which should be ‘genetically common’, right? Another way of looking at it might be the cold, hard fact: How we, as a society, treat our children individually, collectively specifically defines the future of the species.
So, show your kids (bio or not) how to enjoy a good Life as a positive member of the genus LNA! I suppose I’ll have to do a ‘parenting’ bit, but mostly just remember, if our collective future is our children, they learn mostly from what they experience adults doing around them. As any sort of ‘parental figure’, in the broadest sense, one inevitably has an almost ‘permanent’ impact on so many facets of the young psyche. My personal goal with my son was ‘decide what is most important to teach him… and live it, myself!’ I am extremely gratified that one of the movie dialogs he fixated on, from a movie called Kingsman: The Secret Service, included a Hemmingway quote, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your former self.” One of my greatest enjoyments is challenging my own accomplishment, for the feeling of satisfaction that comes with knowing one has ‘pushed the limits’ out a little further, and when that involves the spirit, it feels the most sublime growth!! And in the end, I do firmly believe that the more we invest ourselves individually, the more our collective efforts will affect the coming incarnations of society itself!
Not all of Life is able to support enjoyment, but much of Life overflows with it, if, of course, you can simply find the right perspective for you. Consider for a moment, what in Life has truly put a smile on your heart??! Always be open to new experience that does and seek ways to re-engage those you know as well! Personally, I love a good sunset or a long drive on the coast or ride in the mountains… hanging with my family, bio or not… or simply knowing that I’ve had a positive impact on someone… Whatever your ‘specials’ are, investing in them, naturally, will make you happier, and lead you that much closer to your own idea of ‘Life’s meaning’!
Ultimately, your experience is yours alone. No one has any more or less idea of what, exactly, Life is than you. Beware those who would have you believe otherwise! I do happen to believe that there was this one guy (he shows in more than one tradition), but we ‘railroaded’ him so bad he should have totally turned his back… He loved us enough to ask forgiveness for us while we were killing him…
You will find (or not, I suppose) whatever value out of life you choose. I can’t offer all the ways to do that. I am, however, firmly convinced that dancing every chance that comes and finding the ‘funny’ where ever it appears are two very good ways!
As theoretically intelligent individuals, we are in the position to decide our own nature individually, benign, neutral or malign, and that choice leads inevitably to our ‘fate’. In the venerated words of Neil Peart, of the 80’s rock band, Rush, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!” ‘Following the masses’ means following whomever the masses follow, without even the data to make an informed decision! You get one, count ’em, 1 ‘go’ at this life. Even if reincarnation is reality, you don’t get to ‘come back’ into this sojourn. Do you really want to let someone you don’t even know, and whom likely has less than your best interest in mind, make your most important life decisions for you??! Dancing to society’s tune is at least better than not at all, but only through expressing your own dance, can you elevate yourself to the status of ‘Individual’, in my estimation, one of the clearest signs of actual maturity. And, as a species, that individual choice will cumulatively determine our collective future, which our children, and theirs, will call ‘reality’.
Blessings on your Path, my siblings, all!!
