Timothy

think hard

It's a cold, hard planet, this Earth we tread upon. To
examine human history is to read a record of a species in
defiance of the odds against it.

Consider for a moment the millions of bacteria in the air,
every one at any time, in just the right context, possibly
haulting the advance of human development by interference.
Think of the power and fury of nature, guided or random, and
how fragile our race is to its whims. Earthquakes, typhoons,
volcanoes, hurricanes...all these and many more might have
struck our little bands of growing peoples and destroyed
with no hesitation or regret.

Imagine those early tribes among animals of ferocity and
power that today we tend to forget because most animals we
see are in cages or curled up next to us in bed. There was a
time where being out in the woods was a fight for survival
every moment.

Forget McDonalds, Burger King...there were days where people
no stronger or smarter than we are now were out in the
wilderness throwing sharpened sticks at stampeding beasts in
order to simply eat that night.

This is a very cruel and often hateful world we live in, but
there is so much beauty and wonder in it too. It's easy to
forget that freedom isn't simply a function of allowances
within an authority structure, but a result of perserverance
and progress. As much as humanity still has to accomplish
and improve on, there is no doubt that we have come a long
way too. It seems a lot of times like all there is today is
come kind of bad news or depressing shit going on, but this
world is as good as it is bad.

I try to stop and think about stuff like this as often as
possible. I've lost a lot of things in life to simply not
appreciating them while I had them, and I try not to make
that mistake anymore.

~T