WHY ARE WE HERE? PART FOUR

Here I sit, a natural born American, "enjoying" my Thanksgiving vacation.

I had Thursday and Friday off. Now I'm into Saturday...

As part of the "Why Are We Here" series I will provide an update on how I feel at this moment. I'm sure many of us wonder at this moment why we're here, now... ?

Is it to be happy? Successful? In love?

Kind of depends, doesn't it? Fact is, why we're here may not have anything to do with being any of the above. Fact is, where we live determines "why we are here".

I'm not going to into the "where" of where we live, I'm just saying, where we live has a lot to do with the "WHY"?

I live in the USA. I was born here. My parents were immigrants back in the early 1900's. My mother's side is pure Swedish. My father's side - now that's where it get's interesting: German, French, Dutch, Bohemian, and more. Good mix. Genetically speaking.

50% Swedish, and my other side a 50% mix.

The Swedish side of my family had expectations. It's with that side of the family I grew up. Near as I can conclude, children never grow up to become independent in that environment. It seems, children are expected to continue the status quo... extensions of the family. After reaching the age of maturity, be it 18 or 21, the "child" is expected to do as the family expects. Whatever the "child" does is a reflection on the family. There is the sense that one does not have "free-will", except as approved by the family.

This is not particularly uncommon. Look at many Muslim countries and you see a great discrepancy between the freedom of a male family member, and that of a female. Again, I'm not going to expound on the differences, other than to suggest, in many countries, females are very much subservient to the family rules, and the expectations - to the point that in many countries, if the female doesn't abide by the rules, incarceration or death may be the consequence. In some cases, moving to another country where laws are less stringent makes no difference. The "child" is subject to family rules.

On my father's side I can attest the "rules" were much less stringent. I recall a great deal of support to be myself from my relatives on my father's side. Unfortunately, growing up, I had that support every other year, maybe at Christmas time. Vacations. Holidays.

Why are we here?

In my case it was to get away from the family control. It took many of my most productive years to do so. Between the ages of 20 and 50+ the family influence was a constant. Ultimately, I had to declare a form of personal exile. Not an easy thing to do or accomplish. One doesn't exile oneself by desire, but rather, it's by necessity. It's painful.

One's family doesn't comprehend the action; can't see justification. Doesn't even recognize it as an action.

The world is changing... there is much ado about the break-down of the American family. There is much in the way of criticism, that our country has lost it's moral foundation.

Fact is, we value "education", yet disregard the results. The "typical family" expects results that are in line with family expectations. The fact is, education and knowledge are far, far beyond any expectations.

One reason we're here is to "push the envelope". The first college I attended had a motto - "Let Each Become All One is Capable of Becoming..." That was the goal I accepted ... much to the dismay of my family.

I became educated. I became self-aware. I became cursed!

Why are we here? Maybe all I can share is why I'm here. Maybe I can provide more.

I can firmly suggest, we're not here to be pigeon-holed. We're not here to be subservient to others, whether family nor government. We're not here to hurt others, but we are here to encourage change, and equality. We are here to promote freedom in pursuit of happiness. If we can make our families proud, great. If we incur the wrath of our family, so be it. 

We have a right to exist... to be ourselves and to live our life as we chose, as long as we don't hurt others. In the case where our actions portend to hurt the family, it's a judgement call... a decision to make. In my opinion you have no obligation to conform to family rules once you've come of age to make your own decisions. If what you choose defies family, too bad. As long as your life choice is not to hurt others, it's your option in life to live as you choose.

In my family taboo was being involved sexually with a woman of color, including Asian women. It was to not make marriage and children a priority. It was not to get a job, in just any field - there were "approved" jobs, and those that were unapproved. At age 20 I got one of the latter...

I was cursed as a result of that, and the fact I liked women. I didn't pursue college in the fashion expected of me, and I didn't dress, nor grow my hair as expected. The "perfect storm" ensued.

I am here today, suffering from my personal choices. The only remedy would be to go back and live my origin over again, something I cannot do.

Life is difficult... that is a given. I made my own decisions, and lived my life as i felt was personally acceptable. That I suffer today as a consequence - so be it. I have no regrets, other than there's no going back.

We are here... to be ourselves. Whatever the cost.

We won't live forever, so it's my opinion, with what time we have, live our life being true to ourself.  Family is important, but family does need to accept us as an individual when we come of age to use our education and experiences to become ourselves.

Why we are here is our own business!

WHY ARE WE HERE? PART THREE

Here today to wish family and friends "Happy Thanksgiving" 2010!

Here today to express my relief I don't have to go to work for the next 4 days.

Here today to enjoy our own home-bred turkey. (No Picture, sorry). Although I regret we have to kill it to eat it! But that's our livestock. We eat meat, yet we become attached to our live-stock, and that is life.

In the future maybe that will change. But for now that's the way it is. At least I know our turkey was treated very well, and had a good life. Plenty to eat. I will miss it's gobbling while I try and start my car in the mornings. Certain sounds entice a turkey to gobble. It's pretty cool.

I'm here to remind you, that despite all that's cool about our existence, there is much that sucks - sorry to remind you of that.

Our recent "Great Recession" has crippled hundreds of thousands of average people, myself included.Our banking system is now more dangerous than ever. Politics is more insane than it's ever been,  but there is still hope.

Some may argue success is in one's mind, attainable simply by shear belief in oneself. I'm accepting the new reality,  that with unemployment rates of 5% gone, as has been the standard in past generations, those rates will remain high for quite awhile. Both a world market and advancements in technology have fueled the reality.

That means, the employer has the advantage. If you're over 50, it's best to stay put. And for me that means a 150 mile commute, M-F. Burning a lot of gas, driving. Although I could move, my home is my home - and it means a lot to me.

Part Four will bring you back to the beginning ...

It begins with a book which I just added to my media list. A book I had forgotten about, but that was vital to who I am today.

Wiki Link: Fifth Business is a 1970 novel by Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor Robertson Davies. It is the first installment of the Deptford Trilogy and is a story of the life of the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay. It is Davies' best-known novel, and considered his finest.


There are "leaders, followers, and fifth business..."


I am the latter.


Happy Holidays!


BobKat

WHY ARE WE HERE? PART TWO

Part One is HERE

I ended Part One as a "Black Hole". Literally. That's what happens to some stars when they burn out, go nova.

The thing I'm curious about is,  what causes some stars to become black holes, and others to become red dwarfs. My science here may not be exact, but hope you get my point.

I ended Part One ahead of myself. I'm still here... not the black hole quite yet. Not the thousand year old mummy, buried with pounds of cannabis in what was once known as the state of NH, in the once great country - the USA.

Sure, time WILL change things. Already has and is... the rate of change is exponentially multiplying at a rate that only machine will be able to understand. Humans will simply guide and relate to machines. The machines will build themselves, with the help of humans. We will become symbiants. It's already happened.

I heard tonight on my way home from work, on the radio, the technology is here to "PRINT" 3-D objects. 30,000 such printers already exist and they'll "print" actual objects. 3-D functional objects. In the future, there will be no US Mail, no UPS or Fed-Ex... no stores, malls, or work-places. You'll download and print what you want, be it clothes, be it subsistence, be it a house. The tech is here, now. And as a techie, I assure you, the technology we will witness, in the coming years will blow your socks off! It is going to go way beyond anything humankind ever imagined or dreamed about.

The new reality will not only include sophisticated printers, but a new reality - a Global Web. It will include robotic dolls, that men or women can buy as mates. No more need to date, play games and risk STD's. They exist already, rather expensive though, and not particularly bright just yet with the latest AI. But that'll change real soon. Too bad I don't feel optimistic about seeing it... living long enough to enjoy the possibilities.

WHY ARE WE HERE? PART ONE

Until a few days ago this question - "Why are we here?" would have been a topic I wouldn't have been able to post. I tried asking that question of friends, but every time they looked at me like I was crazy. One friend said, "we're here because we are - it's simple biology". Another said - "it's not something I think about".

But when a MD asks the same question, and publishes an article on the subject, I figure that rather changes things. Robert Lanza, M.D. posted the following article: "Why Are We Here - A New Theory May Hold The Missing Piece".

A better title might be: "What Is The Meaning of Life?" Something I know from the 1970's was a common question.

Even Dr. Lanza's article leaves much to be desired.I quote from his article the following as an introduction:

"Why do you happen to be alive on this lush little planet with its warm sun and coconut trees? And at just the right time in the history of the universe? The surface of the molten earth has cooled, but it's not too cold. And it's not too hot; the sun hasn't expanded enough to melt the Earth's surface with its searing gas yet. Even setting aside the issue of being here and now, the probability of random physical laws and events leading to this point is less than 1 out of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, equivalent to winning every lottery there ever was."

Well, I have a further twist to this question, one that has been an obsession to me for years. 


Why now? 


On the cosmic clock I'm here and gone for approximately one micro-nano second... when considering the age of the universe.  Already billions of light-years have passed since "the Big Bang", when the universe was created. And yet here I am, now, cognizant of my existence; aware of my existence. Why???

 I believe, to be aware of my existence at this moment in time means there is something about me that exists beyond my past and present. How else would I be aware of my being here now? When essentially, I'm already dead and buried. Perhaps someday to be dug up by archeologists and examined. My life speculated about.

And what would they find?

My teeth would tell them I was brought up and raised in the NE of America. That I was well nourished and ate a variety of foods. It would tell them I was of European descent, most likely born in what was called the USA in the 20th century. That for several years after turning twenty I did manual labor, and then oddly, that changed around age 45 when I seem to have become sedentary.  It appears my diet changed. My lifestyle changed. That by age 55 I was suffering from several as yet unknown medical conditions. Chemical analysis might find evidence of alcohol and tobacco use,  and past use of cannabis. Of the three it might be curious why I appeared to favor the first two drugs... and why cannabis, which would have been far safer and more therapeutic was less used.

I might become the great debate as to what the norm was for people living during the 19th and 20th century. A thousand years from now, they might speculate that the addictive nature of alcohol and tobacco trumped the use of cannabis, and they would wonder why. A determination would be made that I had grown up well nourished, but succumbed to addiction to alcohol and tobacco. They would wonder why. They would wonder what happened to me after age 45 that I was sedentary.   That perhaps I was imprisoned. 

I doubt they could draw any conclusive evidence of life in my years that would make sense. And I concur. 

My blogs would be long gone. Most virtual online data would be long gone, and much written material would be scarce. My world would have ended in a mysterious explosion; a nuclear Armageddon perhaps.

What haunts me now, and will haunt me until the day I die is why am I aware of my existence presently? Why am I stuck in this time and place? Why are some of the most poignant changes and threats humankind has ever had to deal with occurring now? Have others in the past felt the same? Does every generation have those who wonder why? Why now? Why am I here?

Why are we aware of our existence - how is that possible, and will it simply end one day, for us, for what we think is a long and often painful existence? How can we know what we know now, unless something spiritual continues beyond our death? On the cosmic clock I am already born and deceased. I am an anomaly.  

If there is a Part Two I hope to further explore my existence. But I have to wonder if it's worth my time. My time which seems to be owned and controlled by others. 

There was a time it wasn't that way... or so it seemed at the time. That time was when I was in my 20's...  a time that seems so unreal now, so out of place. A time i keep going back to, time and again. A time that haunts me... a time where I had what's called "personal power", which for many years I've been without.

I can't help but consider friends who took their own life: suicide, it's called. And friends that died tragic deaths. I can't help but think of the madness that seems to encompass me, especially political madness, prejudice and slavery.

Of senseless murders, wars, persecutions.

I am you could say paralyzed to move on. Locked within myself. Able to look out and wonder why?

I also know, my reality is subjective. That my belief in a past, present and future is just one form of reality. I know this because in my "media list" is a book by Benjamin Whorf: about the Hopi Indians and their view of reality. The Hopi believed "there is that which was, and that which is in the process of becoming". The present and future is one. 

If that would have been the reality I was raised to believe I would not be stuck now. I would believe there is that which I experiences, and that which I now have within my power to live and change. But I don't feel that. I feel stuck, in my present. I feel enslaved by a society that has a fixed believe in what reality is. 

What those archeologists may not know is that what legal choices I had in life.  What the penalties were for those who didn't do as they were told. That a 40 hour plus work week was required, unless one was lucky enough to be born to wealth or stardom.

They would also not know that once I was a star.  A bright star. 

Now, or then, all they may see is a black hole. A quantum anomaly.

A mystery.