Let's Sit Outside

"What is your purpose in life?" When asked so directly, the question is an affront. It most often brings an embarrassing silence. A serious answer is not expected, and the correct social response is probably to defuse the question with humor. However, once set in motion, your internal dialog may grind away until you find a personally more-satisfying response.

A metaphor for life: a juggler. Half magician, half jester, a juggler sometimes entertains and sometimes deceives. From atoms to galaxies, the spheres are always in motion…but the numbers…the numbers have to be juggled to come out right. The idea that irrational numbers are needed to describe measurements of the real world was once considered heresy. The mechanics of evolution is the juggling of molecules to occasionally produce a mutant with greater survival value than others of its species.

Of all the species that have evolved on this planet, more than 99 percent are now extinct. In a galaxy of stars, the forming and burning out of stars is the normal course of events. Randomness seems to be a fundamental property of the universe of galaxies as well as a fundamental property of the smallest elements of physical existence. Species and stars come and go seemingly at random. If life is a juggler, then the juggler is not merely indifferent, the juggler is blind.

For the most part, people don't know why they do what they do. That we can process sense input better than other species has let us dominate our habitat. Our ability to look at something and figure out how to use it has allowed us to cover the planet with members of our own species. Picture the swarm of humans streaming over the planet. Individually, we probe and grope at the boundaries of what is known to us. In quieter moments we are wrapped in contemplation, our minds fluttering from place to place, our bodies floating along behind.

Sitting down outside, my reply is, "I am the fingertips of the blind juggler of life."