Just Like That

A whole new year has revolved around that sun marking the anniversary I finally came crying into this plane of existence.

I know I’m not the first and will not be the last to wonder, but what a weird little thing life is. Is it an exercise? A test? A random science project gone awry?

There are over 8 billion people on the planet, all with different outlooks on this trip they are taking, but we all arguably came from groups out of Africa 6 to 2 million years ago. Did our ancestors all see the worlds in the different spectrums we see today or were their needs more basic? Are our needs as basic as theirs at the base or have we evolved to a certain level of gluttony that replays itself out over the years?

At the beginning I’m sure the larger concerns were food and shelter, and at the base we have the same, but then we also have pieces of metal that people have allotted differing levels of importance to that we work to having. The funniest part, or, in the end, what isn’t so funny, is that everything is made up. The rules we abide, the importance we put on money or status or the kind of jobs that people have – those are rules someone has decided and that we just go along with.

In the end, we are these floating balls of consciousness that have tethered ourselves to 8lb gray matter in a extremely fragile flesh suit covering soft, vulnerable organs all semi housed in a framework of bone that is operated by nerves and electrical impulses. We wander a living habitat, trashing it in our own selfishness chasing those made up beacons of importance. And in the time it has taken to read this, 780 more people have joined us in this habitat, and 360 have left.

And just like that, a new year yawns open with possibilities, warnings and chasing after the elusive comfort of safety. Mind the canary.