twenty-something and invincible

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.

The human species has inhabited this planet for only 250,000 years or so-roughly.0015 percent of the history of life, the last inch of the cosmic mile. The world fared perfectly well without us for all but the last moment of earthly time–and this fact makes our appearance look more like an accidental afterthought than the culmination of a prefigured plan. Moreover, the pathways that have led to our evolution are quirky, improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable. Human evolution is not random; it makes sense and can be explained after the fact. But wind back life’s tape to the dawn of time and let it play again–and you will never get humans a second time. We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher’ answer — but none exists. This explanation, though superficially troubling, if not terrifying, is ultimately liberating and exhilarating. We cannot read the meaning of life passively in the facts of nature. We must construct these answers ourselves — from our own wisdom and ethical sense. There is no other way.

I looked upon every Cross, in every church, yet He was not there. I went to the temples of India and the shrines of China yet He was not there. I searched the mountains of Herat and Candalar yet He was not there. I scaled the distant peak of Mount Qaf only to find the empty nest of the Phoenix. I visited the Ka’be but He was not in that tourist site amidst the pilgrims young and old. I read the books of Avicenna but His wisdom went beyond all the words. I went to the highest court, within the distance of “two-bow lengths,” yet He was not there. Then I looked within my own heart and there I found Him- He was nowhere else.

Mamihlapinatapai

Who knows for certain? Who shall here declare it? Whence was it born, whence came creation? The gods are later than this world's formation; Who then can know the origins of the world? None knows whence creation arose; And whether he has or has not made it, He who surveys it from the lofty skies, Only he knows – or perhaps he knows not.

If you are reserving your love only for those who you have decided are worthy of it – all strangers excluded – it may come as a surprise to learn that this is not love at all, it is called judgment. Judgment is selective, love is all embracing. Just as the sunlight and the wind do not discriminate, true love does not make any such distinctions either. Love and kindness is a way of living. Where there is love, there is no judgment. Where there is judgment, there is no love.