R-R-Rambling!

Note to reader: The following is an experiment in rambling. Its what happens when editing and research goes out the window, and I try to just write what I want to. No internet to look up facts or quotes to make myself appear smarter, and minimal editing of what I’m thinking. The result is this. I promise next week’s blog will be more structured.


It’s amazing, the magnitude of things. The massive scale of this place we call the universe. How are we able to even sum up the amount of content the universe contains into that one word? It reminds me of one of my favorite movie endings. At the very end of Men in Black, the camera pans further and further back from Will Smith, to New York City, to Earth, and even further and faster back to the whole Milky Way Galaxy, and to many other galaxies, until all of the entire universe is contained inside a blue orb. The orb is then picked up by a giant alien hand and tossed in what appears to be some alien form of marbles. It’s comical but at the same time awe-inspiring. This scale of magnitude is very real. Even just looking at your hand, there are millions of skin cells. Inside each cell is a functioning process, not unlike a tiny city. There is data being copied from our DNA, which is then translated into proteins, folded, and shipped out to the place where it performs its function. This protein has a job like most people do. It could break down certain molecules that enter the cell, or it could be used in the cell membrane to decide what gets in. You probably think I’m high or something at this point but I assure you I’m not. If the tiny cells of my brain called neurons are doing what they should be, then I’m thinking straight. We can think of these cells making up a person in the same way that we as people make up the world. The world is one big organism with all the plants, animals, bacteria, etc. doing their own specialized part. But now this rambling is getting a little too hippie and there’s only one place I can go from here, global warming, which I don’t feel the need to preach about.

One of my biggest questions is how molecules turned into cells that needed a form of energy to stay “alive” in the first place? Everything evolved from single celled organisms, but what did the single celled organism evolve from? Molecules? How do molecules evolve? Why is it that the chaos of the beginning of everything decided to become organized? Isn’t some law of thermodynamics broken here? What made cells even want to stay alive? Cells obviously can’t think or feel pain, so why put the effort into trapping energy? Whatever the reason, it must mean that life is better than death. An old Greek myth involves a man who is granted one favor by a god that knows all. The man asks the god, “What is the purpose of life?” The god tries his hardest to persuade the man to ask for something else but the man is stubborn and will not be persuaded. The god sighs and grimly whispers, “There is no purpose to life. Man would have been better off never being born.” Phheww, that’s one of the darkest Greek myths in my opinion. But I don’t think that Greek god had it all figured out. True, death is the absence of life, and so the absence of happiness and sadness, of all the ups and downs this world has to offer. Is all the sadness and pain worth the moments of happiness and joy? Too emo, next.

It’s hard enough to put the universe to scale. What about our lives though? We take things for granted. This phrase is said a lot, and it’s true, but it’s impossible not to take things for granted. Our minds are set up so that we only deal with net differences, not the absolute quantities. What I mean by this is that over time, we adjust to the way our lives are. How is it that a spoiled 14 year old told to do chores can declare they have the worst life ever, while a poor immigrant can think a hula-hoop is the best thing in the world? We are only able to compare the quality of our lives to our own experience. We set up our own reality of how we think the world is and try to maintain it. Sometimes I look at the rich and well pampered and think, how can they throw a fit over not getting the most expensive brand of bottled water, or not being able to sit first class on a plane? But in the same way, someone from a third-world country might look at us and think, how can they throw a fit over not getting a good haircut or not getting good seats in a movie theater? A great show that used to be on the discovery channel was called I Shouldn’t be Alive. It told the stories of survivors of traumatizing accidents and experiences. People who got lost on a hiking trip or who were lost at sea after their plane crashed. In all the cases profiled on the show, the survivors very narrowly escaped death. The most interesting part of the show in my opinion was at the very end, when it showed the survivors telling the final part of their tale, and through this, reliving the experience. It was the looks on their faces when they told of how they waved a plane down, or made it to some kind of civilization. The relief and pure joy of knowing they would be able to live another day was truly beautiful. Conveniently, many of the survivors ended up becoming motivational speakers after their return home. Figures, my as well cash in on one of the most raw and beautiful moments of their lives. But after watching a handful of episodes, a pattern started to emerge with the survivors. All of them claimed that after this traumatic experience, they never took another day for granted again. They “woke up to life” and have since lived with a renewed vigor. One man said that still, the sound of helicopters is his favorite sound in the world, because it instantly brings him back to that feeling he felt when he was rescued by one. In my opinion, the traumatic experience of these survivors has kept them “grounded” so to speak. They know what true despair and hopelessness felt like when near death, so anything else feels above that. Maybe its some form of post-traumatic stress that keeps them at this level. Instead of feeling like it’s the end of the world when they get in a fender bender, they can take a step back, remember what’s important, and just be grateful they’re alive. Maybe that’s the key to life? Approach life from the lowest point possible. It makes sense; people who constantly relive their glory days are miserable.

Anyways, I guess I should try to relate all this to my parasites class, after all, that’s what this blog is for… umm… life is a parasite. But a good one at that. You think about it, I’ve got enough on my mind.